Dead All Around
by DuskLikeDawn
Summary: After the Fae War is over, Sookie must face yet another challenge. The remaining people she holds dear are at risk, and as always, so is she. Spoilers through 'Dead and Gone'.
1. Chapter 1

_**Authors Note:** First everything belongs to Charlaine Harris. This is a complete work of fiction based on her Southern Vampire Mysteries Series. Please know there are spoilers through Dead and Gone, including all short stories to date. I must note though, this story is dark depressing, and if it continues to later chapters, violent. To me a lot of the book 'Dead and Gone' was pointless. This is my reaction to it. I don't know how far it will go. I may write a chapter and never look at it again. Or I may actually finish this one. I don't know. My original thought was to stay away from SVM completely after reading 'Dead and Gone' but instead I dreamed a whole new story. I hope you enjoy it regardless. If I stop writing this, I'll put a note up and send my outline for someone else to finish it. My life is hectic right now, so I don't know how long this will go, or how often it will update. Just wanting to warn everyone._

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* * *

****Dead All Around**

**Chapter 1**

I was still recovering when I got the news. Bill hadn't made it. There was just far too much silver in his body to recover. There weren't enough tears in my body that day. I had lost too much.

Jason's wife, Crystal was murdered in a fit of rage by a man in love with my brother. Mel had left her in the back of his truck and Niall's enemies had found her, they crucified her in the parking lot of Merlotte's. She was seven months pregnant. A family member I'll never get to meet. But I still felt the loss.

Claudine, my beautiful fae cousin had joined one of her two triplets Claudia in the summerlands. With her she took her unborn child, another family member I'll never meet. She and her baby had died protecting me. Poor Claude, the only one left, was all alone, but had decided to join his kind in the fae realm instead of staying with humans when my Great-Grandfather Niall had closed all the portals between the worlds. All of my family was gone. Except Jason, can I even count him anymore?

Tray Dawson also died to protect me. It was his 'job'. He'd been a paid bodyguard, but it didn't make it any easier for me to handle. I'd counted him as a friend the past couple years since I'd met him. He was dating Amelia, my roommate, she said she didn't hate me for his death, but she knew I could read her mind, and so she stayed away. She had packed her things and went to New Orleans. She'd promised to only be gone a couple weeks, maybe a month.

Clancy, one of Eric's vampires that had sworn to protect me, had died protecting me as well. Though he's never liked me, I couldn't help but feel responsible for his final death. He said plain as day that he didn't think it was right to put his life on the line for a lowly human. But he did his duty, as vampires are all about honor. And he died for it.

Bill's death was the hardest to take, though. He had been my first love, my first relationship, my first everything. He had used me, raped me, and nearly drained me, though I didn't blame him for any of it. But I could never be with him after that. He had spent months trying to win me back; apologizing over and over for lying to me to secure me, and my talent, for his queen. But he'd redeemed himself a thousand fold by saving me with my Great-Grandfather from my torturers. One had bitten him with silver poisoned teeth. The poison spread throughout his body. Yet, he managed to stand up to fight for me yet again, and even lost his life saving mine. I don't know that I'll ever forgive myself for his death. No matter what he'd done to me, I had still loved him, as anyone will always love their first love. I hadn't wanted to be with him, but I had wanted him to be happy.

I don't know how I'll forgive myself, or if I can, for all these deaths. For once it wasn't me pulled into someone else's problems, but everyone I knew was pulled into mine. I'd called in every favor I'd been granted by the vampires and werewolves. If I hadn't, they would all still be alive. I wonder if I'll ever be the same? No. It's not possible. I'd been too close this time. I doubt I'll ever even recover. Let alone be who I was before.

I started to climb off the couch, because I had one thing to do for Bill. It was the middle of the night, but I knew Father Littrel wouldn't have locked the doors on the church. I limped slowly to my bedroom; a shower was out of the question without someone to help. I couldn't stand up very long. So I threw on a sundress, even though it was a little cool for it.

Driving was easier than I thought it would be. And it took no time before I was pulling up in front of the Episcopal Church. I limped to the front pew and bowed my head. I prayed for Bill. I prayed for him to be saved even though he was a vampire. I prayed that he would be admitted to heaven. I prayed harder for him than I'd prayed for anyone in my life. Even harder than I'd prayed for myself. I could only hope that God heard me, and that, even better, he listened. When I was done, I added a prayed for everyone else that had died in the past week, all my friends and family.

Soon, I realized I wasn't alone. There wasn't a clear thought pattern, but it wasn't a Were. A Fae! I nearly jumped from the pew to run out the door, but I held myself together. The portals had been closed. The only way a Fae could be here is if they'd decided to live among the humans. I had to remind myself that Niall's enemies were dead. And I was ashamed at myself for being please about that, especially in a church.

I felt my body tighten as I sensed the Fae approaching. My whole body caved in on itself, as I remembered the teeth biting chunks out of my body. I saw the knife coming at me slicing into my skin over and over.

"I won't hurt you," a gentle voice said from behind. "I'm only here to help." My breath was coming quick, my heart racing so fast I was concerned I would have a heart attack for a moment.

"What do you want?" I stood and turned to face him. A man, he just looked like a man. Tall and thin, brown hair chopped short, little round glasses. And wearing a long black robe.

"I'm Father Nicolas, this is my church, you have nothing to fear from me." I could hardly read his brain and I struggled to see if he was lying, but could find no deceit.

"Where is Father Littrel? This is his church." I hadn't been to church in awhile, yet I knew I'd never seen this man.

"Father Littrel called me here, so he could attend to his church in Clarice full time. I've been here a little over a month. But you seem to be the one with the problem right now, why don't you talk to me?"

"Are you going to kill me?" I had to ask, I knew he was Fae.

"Kill you?" He sounded genuinely shocked, his brain radiated disbelief as well. "I'm a man of the Lord, of course I don't want to hurt you in any way. You just seem to need someone to talk to."

"You're Fae, all of your kind wants to kill me."

"Fae? You believe in fairy tales?" I knew he was lying, I could read it in his mind. Whether he was a man of God or not, he was a liar.

"Don't lie to me! I can read your mind. You know what you are. And you're lying to me." I had begun to back away a little.

"What do you know of the Fae?"

"Nothing, I need to be getting home, now. My boyfriend will be looking for me soon."

"Is he Fae?"

"No, he's a vampire." I was to the aisle, now and easing my way backward still.

"Ah, of course vampires would know about the Fae. Why would my kind want to kill you?" I felt pressure on my mind and shrugged it off, and started walking even faster.

"Don't you try to glamour me!"

"Glamour? I don't have the ability to glamour. I'm not a full Fae, only a quarter. I can't do any of their 'supernatural tricks'" He spit out supernatural tricks like it was something distasteful. I could again tell he wasn't lying, but I felt he was lying to himself. But I couldn't read Niall, Claude or Claudine at all, so he probably wasn't a full fae. I slowed down.

"Are you from the sea or sky?"

"What?" He looked genuinely puzzled, but was still easing toward me. "I'm human, for the most part. I live my life as a human. I will have the same lifespan as a human, I am a Christian for Goodness' Sake! Please calm down and speak with me."

"No, I don't think that's a good idea. I need to go. You don't want a vampire in here, do you?" I was sure Eric was feeling my panic through the blood bond we shared. He'd been at Bill's when I left for the church, why wasn't he here now?

"Go if you must. But I would love to speak with you. There are very few in this realm who really knows about the supernatural. Those of us who do, often feel quite alone. I know you are not a vampire or a shapeshifter, but I don't know quite what you are."

"Goodbye, perhaps I'll speak to you another time." I practically ran out the door. There was something so lonely about him when he said the last. But I wasn't taking any chances with all that had happened in my life. I was no longer Good Little Sookie Stackhouse, no I was something else now. Someone harder, stronger, and much more cautious. I drove home as fast as my car would take me, and didn't feel relief until I locked the door behind me.

* * *

Two days later I was startled awake by a knock on my front door. After throwing on some clothes, I raced to answer it. Mr. Cataliades stood there, with a smile on his face.

"Mr. Cataliades," I exclaimed, "please come in." A few days ago he had risked a lot to send his niece Diantha to see me with a warning about the coming fae war. Though, in the end it hadn't been much help, I owed him for trying. After getting him a Mt. Dew (he loved ice cold Mt. Dew for some reason) and myself some coffee, we settled into chairs in the living room.

"It's nice to see you Mr. Cataliades," it kind of was, I'd been alone in my house for days at this point. "I assume you're not here for a social visit though?" I'd always believed in getting right to the point.

"While it is a pleasure to see you Ms. Stackhouse, I'm afraid I am here on business." He picked up his briefcase, sat it on the coffee table and opened it. I watched with a feeling of dread. He was now working for Filipe de Castro, afterall. "I'm sure you know Mr. Compton is no longer among the undead."

"Yes." I struggled again not to cry, and forced myself away from the dark place I had been in since the deaths of half the people I knew.

"Did he tell you he left you everything in case of his final death." Mr. Cataliades seemed genuinely upset about Bill's death. He had been fond of Bill; had known him longer than I had. "Here is your copy of his will." He handed me a small stack of papers, stapled at the top. My eyes teared and I couldn't concentrate on the papers. He'd left me everything, and it was my fault he was dead.

"I'm sorry, I can't accept it. He died because of me. I'm sure at the end, he wouldn't have wanted me to have it."

"He called me the very day he died, Ms. Stackhouse, I assure you he wanted you to have this." The tears finally came, I could no longer stop them. He loved me even when he was dying because of saving me. Even though I had rejected him over and over.

The legal terms on the paper made no sense to me. I see myself as an intelligent person, I didn't go to college, but I read a lot. But I'd never read anything like this. Bill had been there to explain Hadley's Will. Mr. Cataliades seemed to know this, and he began to speak.

"He's left you his house, of course, and all the money in his three bank accounts." He reached over, flipped to the back of the papers and showed me a bank statement. My heart stopped. It was more money than I would make in ten years waitressing at Merlotte's. "That was his main account," he flipped the page again, showing an even bigger number, "this is his savings," he flipped again, showing a slightly smaller dollar amount, "and this is his emergency account." I was in shock. He always lived so poorly. How in the world had he amassed that kind of money? It made what he gave to the Bellefleurs look like change.

"He wanted to make sure you were taken care of for the rest of your life, Sookie." Mr. Cataliades spoke softly, gently even, and put his hand over mine. "You're a rich woman, now."

"I don't want to be rich. I want to look out my window and see him walking in the woods," I choked out. "I want him showing up at my work pestering me with attempts to get me back. I want him alive." By this time I wasn't just crying, I was a sobbing mess. And I was back in that shack, and no one was coming to save me, because Bill, my savior, was gone.

I argued with Mr. Cataliades for awhile, but he wouldn't give in. I guess I was a rich woman after all. After I showed him to the door, I crawled right back into bed. I dreamed money was falling out of the sky, and I was trying to catch it, but when it would get close to me, it would turn into silver knives that sliced through my skin and burnt me like I was a vampire.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Authors Note: **This chapter is a lot of dialogue. It's got a good, spunky angry Sookie. She's full of attitude just like I like her! Hopefully the action will pick up toward the end of the next chapter. There is a little recapping of 'Dead and Gone', which is more important than it might seem. Please let me know what you think. I apologize ahead of time for any spelling mistakes or small errors. My fiance is my proofreader, thank you Evil! But the mistakes are all mine._

**Chapter 2**

I woke for the second time that day when the phone rang. _God! Can't people leave me alone? _I sleepily grabbed for the phone beside my bed, vaguely noting it was dark outside my window.

"Hello?"

"Lover," replied Eric's silky voice. _Great, this is just what I need!_

"Yes, Eric?"

"I felt you in distress. I was calling to check on you."

"I'm fine. Just bad dreams." My mood was starting to lift, like it does when he's around. I jerked up in bed. "Where are you?" He was definitely close. I had to force myself not to smile. Damn it!

"I'm not far." And suddenly I could hear tires on the gravel of my driveway.

"Damn you, Eric! You're supposed to give a girl a little notice!" I hung up on him and ran to the bathroom, hurriedly brushing my teeth and hair. I knew I was in need of a shower, maybe he could help me with that? _No!_ _Bad Sookie!_ No, I could handle a shower on my own. I started to turn on the water, and changed my mind. Eric could deal with me being a little stinky, dammit! He was the one that didn't give me any notice he was coming. I looked longingly at the tub one more time before I turned around and headed to the kitchen, where I knew he was waiting.

"You know, Dear One, you shouldn't be leaving your door unlocked while you're sleeping."

"I didn't. I know for a fact I locked that door last night when I got home." He looked alarmed, his beautiful blue eyes sparking as they met mine. I ignored his anger and started my coffee. My limp seemed a little better, at least.

"You left the protection of your house last night?" Yep, he was mad.

"Yes. I went to church. I met a very interesting man there."

"Of course, only you can meet a man at a church." He muttered.

"I'll have you know that men and women go to church to meet members of the opposite sex every day – well at least Sunday. But that wasn't what I meant."

"Please, do explain." He was now speaking through clenched teeth. I stuck a TrueBlood in the microwave, while I fixed my coffee.

"The new priest is part Fae."

"Fae!" he exclaimed. Only you could meet a mythical creature at a _Christian_," he spat the word, "house of worship." I just shrugged my shoulders. "Why did you leave without telling anyone?"

"I was just doing the final thing Bill asked from me." At that the tears threatened to start again. I sat gasping, trying to control myself, and when I looked up Eric was beside me, kneeling on the floor.

"Lover, your protection is important. You know you are not to leave without notifying someone of your whereabouts."

"I am a grown woman, Eric Northman, and don't you forget it. Was I supposed to ask a _vampire_ to go to church with me? Would you have sat in the aisle and prayed as well?" My voice was getting louder and louder. "The Fae War is over. So unless there is some other threat I don't know about, I'm free to do as I please."

"You are my _Bonded_! It's become official. It's known in the entire supernatural community. You are my _wife_ for all intents and purposes. You must be protected at all times. You should be living with me. Not out here in the sticks, where there is no one to protect you, now that Bill is no longer around." Now I was angry.

"I didn't _agree_ to be your wife! You _tricked_ me into this. _You_ lied to me about what it meant. And now I'm supposed to be _happy_ about it? This was just another way for you to control me. And I will not have it! Do you understand that? I WILL NOT BE CONTROLLED!" Now Eric was the angry one. He had jumped up from his position on the floor and was now pacing the room. I took a moment to wonder why I was now fighting back when I hadn't even felt the desire to when I first found out what he'd done. Then I put the thought in the back of my mind. Something to think about another time.

"I did this for your protection! There was no gain for me in this, trust me, this will only make _my life_ more difficult. But it will keep you out of the clutches of my enemies." He slumped back into his chair at the kitchen table. "Don't fight with me Sookie. I really can't deal with it right now."

Eric looked tired, somewhat diminished, well however diminished a 6'4" Viking God of a vampire can look.

"Have you changed your mind, Lover? Do you no longer want to be with me?"

"I told you I only sleep with one guy at a time. I didn't agree to be your wife. I agreed to be monogamous while we figured this bond thing out." The fight had went out of me, and I felt as tired as Eric looked.

"I do want to speak with you about Bill's death. Did you know he had a Will?"

"Yes, Mr. Cataliades was here today. He gave me a copy. What am I supposed to do with that kind of money? What am I going to do with his house? Is there some organization he felt strongly about, I could donate the money to?"

"Sookie," Eric was exasperated, "he left you that money so you wouldn't have to worry about anything. It's to take care of you." I bristled at that.

"I don't want taken care of, Eric. I make my own way. That's how I was raised. That's who I am."

"He left you the money. It's yours, you could use it to fix up your house, hell, build a new house! Continue your education so you can get a better job. Travel the world and find other telepaths, pay them to train you to use your ability better. _Use the money, Sookie._ That's what he wanted."

"You don't care what Bill wanted unless it suits you. _You're_ the one that wants me to do those things, not Bill. Bill was a workaholic, he understands working. He never once asked me to sit around eating bon-bons all day watching soap operas, while he made the money."

"You are the most difficult woman, Sookie Stackhouse. But don't you do anything stupid with that money. And don't you dare tell your brother about it." That got me thinking. Bill had spent so much money on the damn Bellefluers, his last living relatives, who despised him. He would probably want me to give Jason some of the money. He would want us to become better siblings to each other.

I didn't hear Eric's phone ring, I just suddenly noticed he was talking on it. I pushed on that little tendril in the back of my mind that was the bond, and pulled it open a little. He was _angry_.

"Lover, we must go." He reached out to help me up.

"Go where?"

"To _Fangtasia_, Felipe de Castro is there, and we have been _summoned._"

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm still recovering. I can hardly walk, I need a shower, I can't even wear clothes that touch my skin right now. Nope. De Castro can kiss my ass."

"You have to go. You are my bonded. If you don't go, he'll know you don't heel and we'll both be dead." Again he didn't speak with anger. He just seemed resigned. Something was going on.

"Why are we being summoned?" But my curiosity was gone before I could finish. Another thing to think about another day.

"Come, Lover, I'll help you shower. Then we'll be on our way."

You might have trouble believing it, hell, I had trouble believing it, but while I could feel the lust coursing through Eric's body, he didn't try a thing. He concentrated on getting me clean, and fast. While I put on make-up, he blow-dried my hair. Most times that would probably feel strange, but I just felt content for the first time in days. I even let him pick out my clothes. A short sleeved dress that stopped halfway between my hips and knees. It was dark blue, the closest to black I would buy, and the neck was cut in a long V showing off my ample cleavage. It also showed off almost every bite and knife scar on my body. Yet feeling presentable, we headed for _Fangtasia_.

The conversation was minimal on the drive. I couldn't think of a thing to say. I felt like my head was filled with cotton. I could feel Eric's stress. It seemed like he was about to say something to me over and over, but I was content to let him be quiet. Talking is overrated.

Felipe de Castro, Victor Madden, Pam and three vampires that I'd never met were waiting for us in Eric's office.

"How nice of you to join us," Felipe sneered. Eric bowed his head, and motioned for me to do the same. I did, while griping in my head the whole time. After the niceties were over, everyone settled into seats, Eric keeping his hand on mine.

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Eric oozed. Felipe put up his index finger in a 'in a minute' gesture. And seconds later one of the waitresses came in with a tray of bottled blood for the vamps and a gin and tonic for me. Hmmm, I was in more of a seltzer water mood today.

"So, it seems we've had some problems lately that I wasn't called about." Felipe began after the waitress left the room. "Would you care to explain?" Great! We're here because of me. I felt the blackness swelling up; once again I was the cause of Eric's trouble. Soon they're going to get tired of this and just kill me. Lately, I've wondered if that would have been the best thing to do. _No, Sookie! Don't think like that!_ I pushed the blackness down and tried to listen to Eric's explanation.

"Sir, as you know, Sookie is part of the royal Fae family." _As you know? How the hell did he know?_ "Her Great-Grandfather, Niall Brigant, was at war and his enemies kidnapped and tortured Sookie for hours." He gestured to the still healing marks on my body. _So that's why he picked this dress._ My temper was about to get the best of me, when I felt a wave of calm hit me. I tried to fight it, but I just didn't have the strength. I sat there with a genuinely happy smile on my face, yeah; Crazy Sookie is in the room!

"Yes, I knew about the Fae War. I knew about her kidnapping and torture. What I want to know is why you went against my express orders to stay out of the Fae War?" de Castro was practically spitting at the end.

"Actually, sir, Bill went against _my_ express orders and saved her, with the help of Niall." The king looked taken aback.

"Ms. Stackhouse, could you tell us what happened." No, they can't expect me to talk about it! How could I without going back to that shack?

"Bill and Niall rescued me, sir. I wondered where Eric was. I screamed for him, but he didn't come." I was proud of the steadiness of my voice. But I'd had no intention of telling them anything. What was happening to me?

"And when did you next see Mr. Northman?" Felipe asked me.

"When he came to get me from the Supe hospital. He brought Clancy with me so they could get me and Bill." I didn't think about my answer, it just came out. And that wasn't quite the truth either. I'm _not_ a liar. What was going on? I needed to get a better handle on my mouth.

"And what happened then?"

"The Fae attacked before we could get out. Clancy was killed, and Bill injured trying to fight our way out." Again, automatic. But there was something I forced myself to add. "My pregnant cousin died trying to help me, too." Then my mouth clamped shut.

"A pregnant Fae," Felipe whispered, licking his lips. His eyes glazed over momentarily. I immediately felt nauseous. Snapping out of it, he looked at Pam. "And where were you Ms. Ravenscroft?"

"I was here running the bar the entire time. Unlike Mr. Compton, I do what my master tells me." She was badmouthing Bill! And Bill was dead. Badmouthing him for saving my life.

"Do you care to explain why you sent a vampire to guard Ms. Stackhouse?"

"A body guard? I didn't send a guard to her at all." Liar! Now Bubba will be the one being tortured for going against his Sheriff's orders.

"Ms. Stackhouse, tell us about your guards."

"I had a Were guard, Trey Dawson, he was sent by the Shreveport Were's as they owed me a favor. And my brother Jason was also guarding me; he's a werepanther, from the Hot Shot pack."

"You had no vampire guards?" His face was purple with frustration. I thought that was an interesting sight. I'd never seen that before. He was always so composed.

"No."

"What was Bubba doing on your property?"

"Bubba and Bill were very good friends. And Bubba has always liked me. He's simple though, I don't know if he would have even realized there was a war going on." Why was I lying? Why was I telling them anything? I was getting frustrated and angry with myself. But I seemed unable to stop.

"Very well. I will be investigating this further, of course. I'll be in touch." With that, he rose, his entourage with him, and went out the door.

"I didn't think you had it in you, Sookie." Pam beamed at me, full of fang.

"I don't know what happened." The wave of contentment left me, and I flew to my feet.

"You!" I yelled at Eric. "You set Bill up! You didn't come to save me, so Bill would be the one to take the fall! You made me lie! I don't know how you did it, but you did! How could you do this to me?" I heard a loud sigh, and Pam was in front of me.

"Sookie, let me try something." I just stared at her. "Nope, she still can't be glamoured."

"You _glamoured_ me!" I was ready to kill. If I had a stake in hand Eric would have been ash on the floor is how angry I was.

"No, Dear One, I did not glamour you." His eyes left the floor and met mine, "it's time we talk about the bond."


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **So, this isn't quite as dark as I'd intended, but I do kind of like the way it's going. If it keeps going how I want it to, it will get dark again later. Who knows at this point?! I hope you enjoy! If you have any thoughts or opinions, I would appreciate the feedback. And let's see if you can catch the 'Forest Gump' reference.

**Chapter 3**

Pam discretely left the room, while I seethed waiting for Eric to start talking. He left the chair he was sitting in and began pacing. I could feel his worry, but also some relief. Whatever this was I wasn't going to like it but he was glad to finally say it.

"A blood bond is a rare thing in our world. It's not unheard of, but it's not a common practice anymore." He sighed and looked up like he was asking for guidance. "Vampires bond for one main reason, you might have heard of it called a 'familiar' in movies or books, in Dracula it was a man named Renfield, a lot of vampires refer to their bonded's that way." He stopped again, took a deep breath, and looked at me.

"Vampires bond to make a slave?" I asked. I was sick. I wanted to hit him.

"Yes and no. I told you in my world we're considered married. But a marriage like a hundred years ago. With the vampire being the 'husband' whether a man or a woman." He raised his eyebrows at me, and gestured for me to speak.

"You're going to have to elaborate a little further, bud!"

"The vampire gets absolute control over the human. The human can't make decisions on their own. It's like a super glamour. It's been used for a lot of reasons, love being the less obvious choice."

"You've been controlling me?" All those things I hadn't wanted to think about, he was at fault! My mind sharpened back to him.

"It doesn't work on you as well as it would a regular human. I don't know if it's because of the Fae in you or because of your telepathy or just because you're strong willed." He ran his hands through his hair, seemingly in frustration, and sat back beside me on the couch. "It's wearing to get you to do what I want. But you have to see the good side of this!"

"What good side, Eric? Controlling another person is never a good thing. In any circumstance! I have my own mind, and feeling like someone has clamped my mouth shut is NOT something that's going to endear you to me!" I threw my hands up, spluttering, I couldn't come up with a way to explain to him how awful this was to me.

"There is a good side, Lover," his voice was doing that 'thing' again. He was trying to distract me. "I'll only use it when necessary. Times that it's needed for political reasons, or to save your life!" While this was horrible, my mind had already switched tracks.

"Did you really tell Bill not to save me?" My voice was small, I was almost ashamed of myself for this question.

"Of course not. I told him and Bubba to guard you."

"Well, where _were_ you?"

"I was here, of course. I knew Bill could take care of the problem, especially with Niall's help."

"You were here? While I was being tortured and nearly killed, you were here _enthralling the vermin?_" His eyes went to slits and I could tell I'd gone too far.

"I was not _enthralling the vermin_, I was making sure that you and I would survive when this was over."

"But you didn't care if Bill survived!"

"No, I didn't, and Bubba was also expendable. If they died to save you, it would be no loss to the world."

"You bastard!" I started to stalk out the door, but there was suddenly a very angry vampire in front of me, blocking the door.

"You want me to treat you with respect? You _will_ treat me with respect! I am a sheriff, my word here is law. I am your _Bonded_, you _will not_ talk to me like a common man." His eyes practically spit fire, I immediately cowered in front of him.

"I'm sorry," I hurriedly apologized. But I quickly realized what he'd done and I immediately pulled myself up, "I'm _not _sorry." I decided to hurt him where he hurt me. "Bill was the only man I've ever loved. What you've done to him resulted in his death. I will never forgive you. I'm going home."

This time, he stood aside and let me go. I immediately felt regret. I wanted with ninety-five percent of my body to go back to him, to beg him to forgive me for being stubborn yet again. For pushing him away yet again. For not appreciating what he offered. How bad could it be? He would never use controlling me to his advantage.

There was a line of cabs in front of _Fangtasia _as there is every night. I immediately jumped in one. I normally couldn't afford a cab driving that distance. The driver was certainly unhappy with it. But I was a rich woman now, wasn't I? The thought disgusted me, but it took my mind off Eric, and it kept the blackness away. I thought of what I would do with that money. Maybe I could start over, somewhere there were no vampires. Somewhere Eric couldn't find me. Maybe Amelia could come up with some kind of magic to block me from his influence? The thought of Amelia brought it all back. She was gone; because it was my fault her boyfriend was dead. I cried the rest of the way home.

The phone was ringing when I got to the house. I didn't make it in time, so the answering machine kicked on. "Ms. Stackhouse," came the voice of Felipe de Castro, "I am calling with a business proposition for you. Please call me at your earliest convenience. My offer is a very lucrative one." Why was he calling me himself? Didn't he have minions for that? And who cared how _lucrative_ it was. He was supposed to go through Eric to so much as _talk_ to me. _Dammit!_ I had to call Eric.

"Fangtasia, this is Marsilia speaking" a very nasally voice answered the phone. Where do they get these people?

"I need to speak to Eric, please."

"He's gone for the night." Short and sweet.

"Then I need to speak with Pam."

"She's not available either."

"Then I need to leave a message. Tell Eric to call his _wife_, Sookie when he's _available_."

"Ms. Stackhouse!" the voice exclaimed, she was suddenly normal instead of snotty. "Just a minute and I'll get Pam."

"Sookie," Pam said in a sing-song voice. "someone trying to kill you this quickly?"

"No," I sighed, "Just your _King_ trying to get me to do some very _lucrative_ work for him."

"What? Is he there now?"

"No, he called me. It was on my answering machine."

"I'll get hold of Eric." She said, "wait, why didn't you call his cell phone?"

"I don't know, I didn't even think about it." Interesting.

"Interesting," she said. I nearly cracked up at the thought similarity.

"Can you tell him we can deal with the world ending tomorrow, but for tonight I just want to sleep?"

"Of course, Sookie," she sounded very maternal for a moment when she said, "Sleep well." We hung up the phone. I've always liked Pam. But now I wasn't sure about her, just like I wasn't sure about anyone else with fangs. Where was she when I was being tortured? Oh yeah, keeping up appearances. I closed my eyes against sudden dizziness, grabbing Gran's stool for balance. And I saw Breandan with his sword covered in Claudine's blood, her knitting needle stuck in his neck. I flew through my house to my bathroom and dry heaved over the toilet. I reminded myself that the Fae world was closed and Breandan was dead. No Fae could hurt me now. I just had to worry about the vampires.

I rescinded the invitation into my home to every vampire I knew (that was still alive) and I climbed back in to bed. I still had a lot of recovering to do. I had a lot of thinking to do as well. I determined to take charge of my life. To not be a pawn to anyone else. I was going to be strong. No one would take me again, hold me against my will. I would never be _owned_. It was too much to think about, too much pain to relive, and I cried myself to sleep.

My dreams that night were no more graphic, but a lot more illuminating than the night before. It was afternoon, Bill was sitting on his old rocker on the front porch, and he was dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, his skin darkened from time outdoors. I was surrounded by children in his front yard. A toddler, in nothing but a diaper was pulling on my skirt, while I held a younger child. There were three teenage boys throwing a baseball to the side. And two teenage girls giggling, while they sunbathed.

It was such a happy moment that I continued to look around and saw yet another small group of children playing 'tag' around the side of the house. I looked at Bill, our eyes met, and he mouthed, "I love you". I started to walk toward him and my brother Jason came out the front door, closely followed by Claudine, Claude, Trey and Amelia all carrying platters of food, and setting them on a picnic table that hadn't been there a minute before. The kids immediately dropped what they were doing and ran toward the huge table. Right when everyone started to sit down to eat, Niall _popped _into the yard. He was so happy, we were all so happy. Everyone was talking at once, laughing, reaching over each other to get food.

I woke slowly from that dream, a smile on my face. I was ready to start my life. I had a plan.

Getting out of bed, I noticed I no longer hurt. Looking down, my skin was only slightly bruised. The chunks that had been taken out were completely filled in. There wasn't one knife mark on my body. I smiled, as I went about my morning routine. I dressed for Spring, because it felt like a new beginning. I grabbed a notebook and pen, and began to make a list of everything that I needed to do. It was a huge undertaking. But I knew I could do it. Glancing at the clock I saw I had three hours before I could start making calls.

With a sense of purpose, I went through Bill's Will. He'd made millions with his vampire database. Of course he only got a cut of that. But it was still a large amount. I saw a huge bank transaction for the day I was kidnapped; I couldn't tell who it was from. It could have been another database payment, I supposed. It also seemed like his 'emergency account' as Mr. Cataliades had called it, had been set up less than a week ago. Interesting! How had he come up with so much money so quickly? I guessed there would be no way to find out now, but it was odd.

Bill had stocks in companies I had never heard of. If I was reading it right, he had stock in a fruit company that had made him rich on its own. I almost laughed when I saw Harley on the list. Bill had just never been a Harley type of vampire. I had a lot of questions about this. Should I just sell his stocks?

His house across the cemetery wasn't the only home he owned. It looked like he had one in London, hmmm, that must be why every once in awhile he sounded more English than southern. A house in Maine? And one in California. This was getting too weird. Did these houses mean anything to him? Had he bought them since I knew him, or had he owned them for years and just not told me? I wondered the condition of the homes, the one he lived in still needed a lot of work. Should I just sell the houses, too? Would I have to go visit these houses? I could never sell his home that was neighboring mine. That one meant too much.

I decided to visit Bill's home. I hadn't been there in awhile. Walking through his home, let me relive our relationship. The times we made love before the fire. The couch we used the first time we had 'experimental sex'. He lifted me up and took me right there against that wall. Sitting at the table, he told me about his first wife and his children. The cabinet still held his family Bible. I walked up the stairs and into the bedroom and looked at the bed we'd shared. The stool was still on the side where I'd left it, my nightgown still in the drawer.

I climbed up in the bed and I silently thanked Bill, without a tear, for giving up his life to save mine, for giving me everything he had in his life, his undead life and even after his death. For giving me an opportunity to do some good in the world. I knew there was still something I needed to say.

"I love you, too" I whispered. I still can't be positive, but I'm pretty sure I heard his voice on the air, saying "I know."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Okay, so much for the darkness, I like happy Sookie so much, that I can't bring the darkness back just yet! Also, some of you haven't read my profile (it's LONG, and I DON'T blame you!) so you don't know my thoughts on all the ment in Sookie's life. WELL, this story is NOT about Eric love, Bill love, Quinn love, etc. It's about Sookie love! I've really enjoyed the reviews, I usually like to get back to the reviewers one by one, but I just haven't had time lately, so I'll just say thank you here, and if I get the time I'll answer any questions you've asked! And I LOVE being on so many peoples Author/Story Alerts, Favorite Author/Story as well, definately an ego boost! And this Author's note has gotten LONG ENOUGH! On with the story!

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**Chapter 4**

My first call was to Mr. Cataliades, I had so many questions. Unfortunately, he was very busy and couldn't answer many of them. He did have time to take down my bank account information and agreed to have everything transferred within a couple hours.

"My dear, you're taking this much better than I thought you would."

"I've decided what I want to do with the rest of my life, Mr. Cataliades. It's something I think would please Bill. I need to find a lawyer to handle most of this, because I don't know what I'm doing. Can you recommend someone close? It would need to be someone supernatural. I don't want vampires to be able to glamour them. I want whatever I say to that person to never go any further than them."

"I could handle this if you'd like. After all I am quite experienced in these matters. Tell me what you need, and we'll see what I can do." I started to explain my plans, which were a lot more elaborate that I had originally intended, but he stopped me fairly quickly. "It would be best not to explain this over the phone, dear. I worry about the wrong people overhearing these plans."

"You're right, let's just leave it at: I'll need someone close by for awhile."

"I see that. I just worry any lawyer in your area will… well we shouldn't discuss this on the phone. I'll be there to see you tomorrow morning, I'll clear my schedule for two days, we'll get everything figured out."

"Oh, you don't have to do that. I'm sure I can find help."

"Oh no, Ms. Stackhouse, you're now in my top five richest clients. It's my duty to clear my schedule for you." That made me sit back in stunned silence.

"Oh." What else could I supposed to say to that?

"I'll make sure the money is taken care of, but I do need to go now. I'm due in court in 6 minutes. I will see you tomorrow morning, look for me at sunrise." Without waiting for a goodbye, he hung up the phone. What was it with Supes and bad phone manners?

I marked off the first thing on my to-do list. But I had to flip the page to start a new list for the next day. Then another for questions I had. Then I realized a lot of the questions were from the Will, so I would need a highlighter. I searched in the drawers and couldn't find one.

I'd seen Amelia do all this with something on her laptop. Oh, great! I'm going to need a computer, too. I'd learned a little on Hadley's old computer, but it was basically just surfing the net. Then it broke. Since I didn't care about the damn thing, and Amelia had her own, we just tossed it out. Another thing to add to today's to-do list. I was going to have to go to Shreveport, my lip curled at the thought.

Phone calls first, I thought. Worry about the rest later.

I called the Monroe Monument Company next. It took them a little while to agree with what I wanted. Even though I didn't have the money from Bill yet, I had my payment from Rhodes, and a little bribery went a long way. I felt a pang of guilt, because bribery just wasn't my style. But this was for Bill, and nothing would stop me from doing this for him. Not even morals.

After that I called Barry Bellboy. I really didn't think he would agree to what I wanted. After all the last time I'd seen him, he was thoroughly disgusted by me. He was the one person in the world I couldn't keep secrets from. He'd seen it all, Andre's death, Debbie Pelts death, Lorena's death, the Witch War, and now there was even more he would see. But if he could help me with my venture, it would make things a lot easier, I could handle a little discomfort.

He seemed glad to hear from me, surprisingly. Without hesitation, he agreed to come to Bon Temps on the next flight. He was bored sitting around in Texas waiting to be called for work. It seemed _he_ didn't have to report his activities to the vampires. He worked for them for money, not loyalty. He'd heard about me being part fae and asked if I thought he could be as well and perhaps that's why he was telepathic, too.

"No, Barry, my Great-Grandfather said that my ability had no connection to my Fae blood. Perhaps while you're here we can do some research, see what kind of common background we have. That might help us figure it out."

"I'd never thought to wonder why, until I heard that. But now I do want to know what made me _me_. You know?" I told him I did. We didn't talk too long. I had a lot to do, and he had a flight to catch. Before hanging up I realized I had something else to tell him.

"I had a visit from the FBI. You might want to stay as invisible as you can."

"What? What did they want?"

"Can we talk about it when you get here? I don't feel comfortable explaining on the phone."

"Is this going to be dangerous?" He sounded quite calm, though I remembered he didn't handle danger all that well.

"It shouldn't be. I'm trying to keep it quiet, just because I want to do something that I want to do for once. Without anyone trying to get all heavy-handed and take over. Everything is completely legal, just so you know. I'm not that kind of girl, at least!"

"I'm glad to hear that. I think I'll drive to you. I'll be there in the morning."

Sam was my next obstacle. I'd been given time off work to recover. But I dreaded what I was about to do. I couldn't give him the details, because he was still reporting my activities to Eric, and I didn't want Eric to know what I was doing just yet. I don't think he would try to stop me, but I wanted my own life. And I wanted to control it. I would be happy for him to be part of my life if he would just accept that. Nope, not dwelling on Eric right now. I had things to do.

I went to Sam's trailer, because Merlotte's wasn't yet open for the day. I debated on just coming back, but thought about everything else I had to do yet, and decided to get it over with now. He answered the door, wearing nothing but blue jeans. His eyes widened when he saw me, and his mouth curved into a smile.

"Sook, wow, you look great!" I beamed. It's always nice to be appreciated.

"Thanks, but I need to talk to you, Sam." His smile turned to a frown, and I could only clearly make out 'damn vampires' from his mind.

"Come in, come in. Do you want something to drink? I made some sun tea yesterday." I realized I was starving. How long had it been since I'd eaten?

"You know what? Let's go to breakfast. I'm starved."

"This must be bad if you want to be in a public place. You got bad news, cher?

"Oh hush, it's not good or bad. Come on." It took a little cajoling, but we went to the one non fast food restaurant in Bon Temps that served breakfast. Over scrambled eggs, sausage and biscuits, I broke the news.

"Sam, I'm not going to be coming back to work." He froze, his egg-filled fork halfway to his mouth. A kind of choked sound came out.

"Why, Sookie? Is Eric making you do this?"

"Eric? God, no! I still don't know what I'm going to do about Eric. He said a blood-bond is like a marriage, but you can't just get divorced…" I trailed off; thinking there _had _to be a way to get rid of it. That way I would at least know what feelings were mine, which were his and which ones he was making me feel. "Huh?" I realized Sam had been talking.

"I said: Then why are you doing this?"

"I have a plan, Sam. I can't tell you about it just yet. I have a lawyer coming tomorrow and we're going to work out the details."

"How are you going to make money? Is Eric going to pay for everything?" He had his 'angry face' on. Hmm.

"I thought you knew. Bill is dead." My eyes teared, by they didn't fall.

"No, I didn't know. I'm sorry." He covered my hand with is. He seemed to be contemplating something.

"Spit it out, Sam."

"What does Bill's dying have to do with you quitting your job?"

"He left everything to me. I now own houses all over the world. I have more money than I can ever use. I have another car, stocks, and foreign bank accounts." I laughed, not a happy laugh, but a laugh none-the-less. "So, I'm going to put it all to good use."

"Wow, Sook." He shook his head, not knowing what to say. We talked a little while longer. I drove him back to his trailer just in time to open the bar. He reached over and hugged me.

"Good luck, you know if you need anything I'm here."

"I know. Thank you, Sam." And then I was headed to Shreveport.

Alcide was the next on my list. I met him at his office in Shreveport. I was in and out surprisingly quick. And I would be meeting with him the next afternoon at Bill's house. He hugged me when he saw me, told me he was sorry for all my losses. But I could see all his romantic thoughts toward me were gone. Somewhere over the last little while, I had almost forgotten him. He was still a handsome man, but not for me. Interesting, something else I would need to think about when I had time on my own.

I drove to the _Best Buy_ after I left Alcide. I showed my computer ignorance, but somehow ended up with what I was told was the best laptop out. It came with an attachment pack with a mouse, a number pad, and something called a hub. I bought a portable printer, too, and a cute brown leather bag to carry it all. When I told the salesman I was starting a business, of sorts, he threw in some computer programs completely free, some CD's, and something he called a memory stick. He also talked me into a book, 'Computers for Dummies'. Hmm, I guess that would be the book for me.

My final task for the day was something I had wanted to do for a long time. The last time I had the money for it, my kitchen burnt down, and I wasn't able to after rebuilding. I pulled into the used car lot a little after two in the afternoon. The salesman was great. I told him what I had in cash to buy a vehicle, and told him what I wanted. When I drove off the lot it was nearly five. And I only had one more task to complete. I stopped and had dinner, admiring my new (to me) full-size SUV, enough room for eight. It came with a little keychain that locked and unlocked the doors, good for all those times getting chased! An alarm, even a CD player, which I'd never had in a car before. They tried to get me to put in a GPS, but, really, why would I need that? I sat eating a plate of lasagna, with garlic bread, while I pondered my day.

It wasn't like me to spend money like this indiscriminately. But these were necessary. I needed Bill's house completely refinished, perhaps even expanded. I needed a big enough car. I needed a computer for learning and running my little venture, well big venture, really. I couldn't wait to get started.

My last task for the day was a mixture of necessity and pleasure. I went clothes shopping. The necessity part was because I wanted to be taken seriously. Not just looked at as a dumb blond. The act worked for me sometimes. But for this particular thing, it would be very bad. I bought business suits, skirts pants and blouses in every color of the rainbow. A few sundresses, under garments to match everything else, even a little bit of jewelry. I was feeling guilty by the time I started on the shoes. Did I really need all this? People were going to talk. They would think I was someone's 'kept woman', some vampire's whore.

I refused to go there, even in my mind. They could talk all they wanted. In a year, they would be eating their words. I hadn't earned this money, but it was mine. Not some handout from a lover. I'd spent a huge amount of money, yet I still felt justified. I was going to be doing _good_ in the world. I bought shoes to match all my new clothes. So there, gossip mongers of Bon Temps, just because I suddenly had money didn't mean I was different.

No, I was different because I'd come too close to death this time. I'd thought I'd been close to death before, but this time, I was right on the edge. I refused to dwell on it any longer. I would turn my life around. I would get my life back.

In my new, packed car driving home, I wept again. This time I wasn't saying good-bye to all those I'd lost. I was saying goodbye to who I used to be. Good-bye to the naïve, stubborn, self-righteous, self-deprecating, critical, motivation-less, under-appreciated barmaid.

In my new state-of-mind, I knew they would be proud of me, Gran, Claudine, Bill, my parents; they had all wanted me to be the best I could be. All I had wanted to be was a barmaid. But now I have a dream, and I'm going to make it come true.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten about Eric for a brief time. I know, how on Earth could I forget him? I was so worn out by the time I got home that I didn't even feel him close by. Well, now I knew what I needed to do. Stop sleeping, keep myself worn out and I'd never feel him again.

He looked angry standing on my front porch, but changed to shock as he realized it was me in this shiny new car. He was at my door before I had even gotten my seatbelt off.

"Lover, where have you been?" I just gestured to the car and everything in it. He sniffed my skin and recoiled. "You ate _garlic_?"

"Yes, I was very hungry, I like Italian food." I started pulling bags out of the car, looking pointedly at Eric. It took him a second, but he got the hint. Between the two of us we got everything inside in just one trip. Of course, there was a slight hold up when I forgot I had to re-invite him in. Oh. Now I knew why he was mad.

I immediately began hanging up clothes, waiting for Eric to reveal his purpose for visiting me.

"Lover," there was iron in his voice, I looked up at him, uncomprehending, "is there a reason you're ignoring me?"

"No, I'm just hanging up my clothes, if I leave them in the bags they'll wrinkle." I squinted at him, "is something wrong?"

"Yes, something is wrong. You're acting – _strange_." Strange? What does he expect?

"Eric, I'm acting as I always do. I got home from shopping and eating dinner and now I'm putting away my purchases. I come home to someone here who I wasn't expecting, and I'm going about my business. How is that strange?"

"You _should_ have been expecting me." He bit out.

"Why should I have?" I was proud of myself for keeping my temper, because he was making no sense.

"I told you through the bond." His teeth were still clenched.

"Yeah, about that, I think I'm just so tired that it's not working or something. I noticed that when I got home. I didn't feel you here."

"You find nothing strange about that?" He growled.

"No, I've personally never had a blood bond, and I was just thinking it was great that I got to be alone in my head, to be honest. Do you know tiring it can be, mentally, for me to deal with crowded shopping malls, car dealerships, computer stores, and on and on. Sitting in traffic is even difficult! I'm glad to be alone in my head right now." I walked to the closet to put a handful of blouses away, when I heard him gasp. I turned quickly, thinking there was something wrong. "What?"

"Your scars, your bruises, they're gone." I looked down and saw that even the small bruises I had earlier that morning were now gone.

"Yeah, you're blood heals fast!" He shook his head, mouth hanging open. What did he want me to say? Did he want me to fall to my knees and thank him for healing me?

"No, my blood didn't do that."

"I'm sorry but you must be mistaken. Your blood is certainly the only blood I drank!" That subject was getting boring. "Did you talk to de Castro?"

"Yes."

"What does he want?"

"You, of course."

"Details, please?"

"Now that it's out that you're part fae, the entire vampire community would like access to you, of course. Use you for your talents, rape you because you're beautiful, and suck your blood because it's sweet. Lock you in a room, and come back later to do it all over again. They won't stop until someone else offers them a ridiculous sum of money for you, or they've drained you. Then some of them might turn you against your will, just to secure your talent for eternity."

That had its intended effect. I slumped down on the edge of my bed. I had to remind myself that if not for Eric, that was probably the life I would have. He was protecting me from all that. Letting me keep my life, even though he used the bond we shared to control me on occasion, wasn't it better than being s sex and blood slave?

"Eric, what does he want right this second? What is the lucrative business proposition that he wanted to talk to me about?"

"Don't worry. I've dealt with it. But you will have to be under my protection at all times now. In fact, you're going to have to move to Shreveport with me."

"Not gonna happen."

"This is for your safety. Why don't you ever listen? I've been around more than a thousand years, trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"In that thousand years you've obviously never learned how to treat a lady."

"I'm not going to argue this with you. I told you I would only use the bond with regards to politics and your safety. It is for your safety that you come with me now." Nothing. I didn't feel _anything_.

"I'm staying right here in my own house. Vampires can't get in. Plus I'll have two demons here in the morning, and will be staying for two days. I just found out that one of them can produce fire with their hands and as they're related, I'm assuming both can. I think that's more than enough to protect me, especially from any vamps that come calling."

"How did you come across a fire demon?" He rubbed his hand down his face in frustration.

"Mr. Cataliades and Diantha will be here. We need to get all the stuff from Bill's Will taken care of. So you see, I can't leave."

"You can stay at my house and come back in the morning."

"No, he said to expect him at sunrise."

"Then call him back and have him meet you at my house."

"No. We're meeting with someone else at Bill's house in the afternoon. I really do have a lot to do the next couple of days. You're welcome to stay here, or at Bill's house. The hidey-hole at his house might be more comfortable." He glared at me.

"We die during the day, Sookie. It doesn't really matter how comfortable it is. We don't feel it."

"Fine, sleep in the hidey-hole." I went back to folding and putting away my clothes while Eric stared at me.

"There is something different about you today."

"And what is that?"

"There is no lust coming from you, no attraction, no love, nothing."

"It's because I'm not feeling those emotions right now. I'm calm, I'm not horny in the least. And I'm sorry, but though I'm very attracted you, but I've realized that is not enough. You don't feel love because while I'm very fond of you Eric, I'm not in love with you," I sighed, yes we would have to talk again, and soon. We did have to figure this whole 'thing' out. His shoulders slumped and his head bowed toward the ground. "I do hope I haven't hurt your feelings." .

"I was afraid of this." He practically whispered.

"Afraid of what?"

"That all my work influencing you would be out the door as soon as you realized I was doing it."

"How long _have _you been influencing me?"

"Since Jackson…" His eyes were pooled with red. My heart clenched, but I could afford no sympathy for him right now.

"Eric, I rescind your invitation to my home."

"Sookie, no!" He yelled as he walked backwards out my bedroom and toward the backdoor. "Don't do this! You can't solve all your problems this way, by running away or kicking people out! Talk to me!" By that time he was already on the porch and I slammed the door to drown out the rest of what he was saying.

How had I not noticed that I was being manipulated? All this time, I thought I'd fallen for the guy, uh, vampire. I know the curse was real, right? Of course, even Eric's not that good. Something to think about another time. I went back to folding and putting away my clothes, concentrating on my new dream for my life. Soon I was smiling again, excited about what tomorrow would bring.

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**Author's Note #2:** This chapter may seem really out of character for Sookie, but please know that it's all for a purpose. I know a lot of fanfic writers are annoyed for her lack of love of material things, and they write in that she's changing her mind, and whatnot, but that _**IS NOT**_ what is happening here. You WILL understand later, I hope.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note: **She finally gets her project started! I hope you enjoy, thanks for the reviews and PMs. Yes you die-hard EL's, PMing me, Eric will be back in the story in a couple chapters, promise!_

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**Chapter 5**

When my alarm woke me up, it was still dark. I hummed to myself happily as I got ready for my day. I decided to wear one of my new sundresses. It was bright and summery and made me feel good. The dress was bright yellow, with white inch wide straps that crossed in the back and bands above and below the breast and went to just above my knees in an A-Line where there was a larger white band. I added low-healed white flip-flops, a thick, plastic, beaded necklace, and heavy white plastic bangles. After some thought, I poured the contents of my purse into a larger white bag.

I smiled, looking at myself in the mirror. I put on minimal make-up, not needing it with so much vampire blood in my system. I remembered that Bill always liked my hair down, so I dried it smooth. It was so long now, coming more than halfway down my back, that it took awhile to dry. I smiled again at my tanned, scar-free, bruise-free self. I finally left the mirror and started my coffee.

I was on my second cup when I heard a car in the drive. I was glad Mr. Cataliades was finally here, I could start my plan!

I was out the door and next to his car faster than I wanted to think about. He was already smiling before he even said hello. He shook my hand, jovially. Diantha was out of the other side before I could blink.

"Nicetoseeya." As always, I had to replay what she said in my head, and slow it down, before I could respond.

"It's good to see you both. Come in." I ushered them into the house, already having two glasses of ice filled Mt. Dew waiting, and bowl of cheese balls. I remembered Mr. Cataliades had been partial to them. I was right, his eyes lit up at the sight of them, and his hands were hovering over the bowl, seemingly before he realized it, he looked up questioningly. "Of course those are for you Mr. Cataliades, would the two of you like anything else? Breakfast, maybe? Coffee? Tea?" They declined. "Would you like to freshen up, or anything? Are you planning to stay here for the night? I have three extra bedrooms and I'd be happy to have you, or if you're more comfortable, Bill's house is empty."

"I think Diantha should stay here for the night, but it would be best for me to stay at Bill's if you don't mind."

"Of course not. Diantha, would you like to see the room you'll be staying in?" She nodded, and I showed her to my old room, the one with the hidey-hole in the closet. Then I wondered where Barry would sleep. There were the two rooms upstairs of course, but maybe Mr. Cataliades wouldn't mind Barry staying at Bill's with him?

"I'mgonnatakeanap." She yawned. Weird, I didn't think demons slept.

"Okay, I'll see you when you wake up. If you need anything, just ask. Or make yourself at home." She smiled, nodded and crawled into bed, in that sinewy way that I've only seen from her.

Back in the living room, Mr. Cataliades hands were orange with cheese powder, and his Mt. Dew nearly gone. I quickly brought the two liter bottle to him.

"Now, dear, tell me what it is you need."

"You can't repeat any of this right? This is just between the two of us? Even if another person is involved?"

"Of course, lawyer – client confidentiality is not only a law in the human world. It is quite accepted in the supernatural world as well."

"Well," I settled back into my chair, ready to dive in. "You remember my cousin Hadley?" he nodded his head, eyes squinted. "Did you know she had a son?"

"No, I didn't know that. I'm sure the queen did though. I'm told a vampire can tell whether a woman has been with child, by the taste of their blood." Eww, I didn't want to think about that either.

"Well, I met him recently." I took a deep breathe, and he encouraged me with a nod, "he's telepathic, too." He couldn't hide his shock at this statement. His eyebrows flew up so fast I thought they would come clean off his face.

"Unbelievable." He stared into space for a minute. "And you want to protect him?"

"Yes, but probably not the way you think. I want to train him. He starts Kindergarten in just a few months; his ability has already caused his father, Remy considerable distress. His girlfriend actually broke up with him, saying his son was a freak. I feel a responsibility to Hunter. And I've already agreed to train him, so he won't have as many problems in school as I did. But that's not everything."

"Okay," he pulled out a thick leather-bound book, said something incomprehensible to it, and it opened in his hands. He quickly started jotting. "So we have protect and train Hunter, continue on."

"I want to find others like him, not just telepaths, though. Other supernatural children. Shapeshifters, Fae, anyone that is not completely human. I want to give them a home if they're not welcome in theirs, a boarding school, of sorts, for children whose parents just can't deal with their abilities."

"That could be difficult to achieve, Ms. Stackhouse. While your thought may be noble, there are many in the world that will hear about this school and try to do you and it, harm."

"Well, I've thought about that, I want to employ a witch full-time. His or her entire job would be to ward the property, to keep out anyone human or supernatural without an invitation by me personally."

"That would work on all humans, and most supernaturals. The Fae, however, would be able to break a witch's magic."

"Then, perhaps, I'll call on my Great-Grandfather, and ask him for help in warding the properties? He didn't tell me I couldn't call him. I know he closed the portals, but does that mean their phone service won't work?"

"I doubt he would be able to get the calls. Without a portal being opened, there is no way a signal can get there."

"Well, I met a priest who is part Fae, if he's trustworthy, he could be an option."

"I wouldn't bring in outsiders if I were you. I'm sure your roommate would be equipped to handle it for the most part, and you could always bring her mentor here to strengthen the shields when need be? Have you thought of demon magic?" I know I looked embarrassed when he asked that, because I sure felt embarrassed.

"No, I'm sorry; you and Diantha are the only demons I've met. And I don't know what is polite to ask a demon and what isn't."

"We don't have the magic of Faeries, but we do have magic. I can add a little something after the witches are done, to keep away most beings. And perhaps injure the ones who try cross against it." His smile was alarmingly large as he wrote some more in his book. "What else?"

"I want to help as many races of beings as I can. So, I would bring in a psychologist to help get through being an outcast, to bring up their self-confidence. I'd like to have shapeshifters, help with other shifters, to work with them during the full moon and teach them _before _the first shift, what they will be facing. A witch to help with other witches, etc."

"While a large plan, it seems straight forward so far. Where do you plan to do this?"

"I want to convert Bill's house. His house is bigger than mine, so it would be less work to change his. It may need to be expanded. Alcide will be here this afternoon to discuss it."

"Alcide? Of Herveaux and Son?"

"Well, it's kind of only the son now, but yeah."

"I'm sure Ms. Broadway's father would be happy to give you a large discount, he does owe you a favor, correct?"

"I don't see it that way, I only introduced him to Sandy Sechrest." I shrugged. "It doesn't matter, Alcide will give me the best price he can. And since he's a Supe, he won't talk. Amelia's dad might."

"Are you expecting tuition?"

"Cheap tuition." The questions went on until Barry arrived late in the morning.

Barry arrived in a red convertible, so much for being inconspicuous! He was dressed in khakis and a button up sleeveless shirt. Hmm, he's been working out. He laughed. My face turned red.

"Ya know, I think I finally figured out how annoying I can be to other people." I smiled though, I was happy to see him.

"At least I'm still a looker." He waggled his eyebrows and flexed his muscles.

"Yeah, and I still got the boobs." I dead-panned.

"Damn, you heard that?" Now it was his turn to be red-faced. "I thought I was blocking that pretty good."

"You blocked fine, but now I know what you were blocking." I laughed at him and gave him a hug. Releasing me, he shook his head.

"You do look great. It's hard to believe you went through…" _the torture everyone says you went through, _he finished in his head.

"Yes, I've been through a lot, but I'm recovering, and I'm moving on." I linked my arm through his and guided him up the steps into the house. "You remember Mr. Cataliades?" Diantha poked her head into the living room right then, like the child that doesn't want to be excluded. "And Diantha, of course."

"Nice to see you again, Mr. Cataliades," he nodded toward him, "Diantha," he nodded to her as well. I could read clearly that he wasn't as happy to see them as he pretended to be. But that was his problem. I needed all the help I could get right now, and they were it.

I thought it would be a good time to start on lunch. It was a little early. But Alcide would be there in a soon, so I thought I should get it out of the way, and I was hungry. I had no idea what demons ate, though.

"Is everyone okay with ham sandwiches and chips for lunch?" I asked.

"Yougotpickles?" Diantha asked.

"Of course." She smiled, her razor sharp teeth gleaming from the sun coming in through the window. Barry followed me in to the kitchen, and even helped me fill a platter with sandwiches, and a large bowl with half regular chips and half barbecue. I also grabbed another 2 liter of Mt. Dew out of the fridge. I was glad I had decided to stock up when I knew Mr. Cataliades was coming. It seemed Barry was a Mt. Dew fan as well.

So, two telepaths and two demons settled into lunch around my new(er) table in my new(ish) kitchen making small talk, until the Werewolf knocked on the back door. Tell me now that I'm just a normal person, I dare ya!

I invited Alcide in, he sat down with us to eat. Everyone seemed to think my idea for a school was a good one, and something that should have been done long ago. I was glad I had gotten a bigger table when the kitchen got burnt down, there had only been room for four at the old one, now there was room for six. I would have to get a much bigger table for Bill's house, maybe seating for twelve? Probably even more. I noticed everyone was staring at me. I blushed, "Sorry, I was off in my own little world."

"I said," Alcide started, "what's making you do this? You're not a vamp, were, shifter or anything supernatural. What would make someone who has a choice to stay out of this life, jump into it like you're doing?" I had expected the question, not put that way, necessarily. But I had an answer ready anyway.

"You think she could choose to stay out of this life?" Mr. Cataliades scoffed at Alcide, Diantha had a little smirk, and even Barry was raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well, she could stay _mostly_ out of it. She doesn't have to be involved twenty-four hours a day, which is what she's going to do. I just think the idea is a good one, but for a Supe, not her." I smiled at him.

"Did you know, Alcide, that I was tricked into being married to Eric?" His mouth dropped, closed, he sputtered for a second, clearly couldn't come up with no answer, then shut up. "Hmmm, I was told everyone in the supe community would know by now." My smile grew even bigger. "And I thought you _did_ know that my Great-Grandfather is now the only Prince in the Fae realm?" I actually saw his mind blank this time, Barry obviously did, too, because he laughed.

"Hell, I live in Texas and had already heard about it." Barry said, shaking his head.

"So, how is a girl going to have a normal life being the descendant of a Fairy Prince, married to a vampire, and being telepathic to boot?"

"I had no idea."

"Continuing to answer your question, there are a lot of reasons I want to do this. Do you know the only thing I ever wanted out of life was marriage and children?" He nodded his head yes. "Do you think I can get that being married to a vampire?" He shook his head no. "The only way I'm going to get anywhere close to that dream is through adoption or being with someone other than Eric. I don't think Eric would handle that too well, and if I didn't end up dead I'm sure my child and the father wouldn't last too long. Also, I _like_ helping people. Who better to help than children? Why not put them on the right track when they're young so they don't end up intolerant of others, or fearing what they don't understand? And, as a bonus, I'm doing something good for the entire supernatural community. I'll have more protection; I'll be training other telepaths, getting shapeshifters to teach other children to control their shifting. I may even be able to get some fae help from those that are left in this realm. Do you think there would be so many people trying to kill or kidnap me when surrounded by demons, shifters, fae, vampires, witches and more than one telepath to know what they were doing before they had a chance to act?"

"Let's look at your new house." It was obvious that I'd won that argument, but he didn't want to acknowledge it. I could see the pride in his mind though. I felt that pride and my mood was even better than it had, been which I hadn't thought was possible.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** I'm really into houses, interior and exterior design, I had to cut a lot out of this chapter so as not to spoil the surprise later. I feel this chapter is important though it doesn't seem to advance the story very far. I think we need to see that Sookie is taking this seriously, and see's the obstacles she'll face. I hope you agree. Once again thanks for all the reviews, I would get back to you individually if I could, but I'm just so busy lately... I'm lucky I'm able to get the chapters out at the rate I'm going. But if I don't stick to a one-a-day pace, I'm afraid I'll never complete it. But your reviews, favs and alerts, really make me keep writing, it's like being paid to be a writer! But paid in kindness not money. I hope you enjoy.

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**Chapter 6**

Alcide drove to Bill's house, as he would need some tools from his truck, but the rest of us walked. It was such a nice day. I took them the shortest way, through the small woods and across the cemetery, and when we walked out into Bill's yard, Alcide was just getting out of his truck.

"Where do you want to start, Sook?"

"First, I think we should figure out what we're going to need. I'm thinking an expansion is pretty much necessary." I thought for a minute about private school's I'd seen on TV, but I had no idea if that was realistic, plus there wouldn't be many children here like on those shows. "Have any of you been to a boarding school?" Heads shaking all around.

"I have been inside many," Mr. Cataliades supplied helpfully.

"Great! What do you think we need?" The five of us walked in, each throwing out ideas for the renovation. Some were a little over the top, Diantha for instance always wanted a tower room, which not only would look dumb on Bill's house, but wouldn't be very practical either. Maybe it would be good for the witches; they sure used them a lot in _Harry Potter_. But I turned that idea down, thinking we could build a tree house to use as an astronomy tower if we really needed one. I had to laugh at myself, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and that was getting more and more obvious by the second.

We walked through the bottom floor; I was relieved to notice I still felt Bill. But the home now felt like _hope_, not sadness and despair. It was old, it would need a lot of work, but I knew it would happen.

A lot of the remodeling that Bill had done would basically need redone. He had taken out three quarters of his kitchen, after all what use did he have for it? But with a bunch of kids (especially Supes that ate a lot more than regular kids) and adults, we would need a kitchen at least three or four times what it was currently. The living room would need expanded as well, as there would have to be somewhere the kids who would be staying here could just hang out, talk, watch TV, do their homework, etc. And the dining room barely fit an eight person table, which was a good size for a large family, but awfully small for the amount of kids and adults that were in my dream. Barry's head jerked toward me.

"You dreamed that?" His face was filled with a longing so strong I'd never seen it on a human face before. The closest thing to it was a vampire being near a fairy.

"Yes, that was the dream that led me to doing this." I could clearly see, in his mind, that he was set on being a part of this. That whatever it took, he was in. He had felt my happiness and contentment of the dream. Had seen what it could be like, and it was something he had never had. He closed his mind quickly, before I got too much, and smiled, nodding at me. I didn't close my mind. I had nothing to hide, and all the people in this room were supernatural of some sort, they knew my ability and didn't fear or dislike me because of it.

Alcide started taking measurements and handed me a sketch pad. "Draw out a rough layout of the kitchen you want. Think of a restaurant kitchen when you dream this up though." He looked around for a second. "You know most of the Shreveport Weres will send the kids to you a little before the first change. It's best to do that somewhere out in the country like this than in the city. You're probably going to get more kids here than you could dream up. I know you wanted something small, but if you want to make a _real_ difference, a handful of kids aren't going to get you too far. These plans of yours need upped." I had to think about that for a minute. I didn't want it to look like some college campus with twenty buildings scattered around, but it was true that we would need actual classrooms and maybe real teachers. They would have to be Supes themselves or else humans that supported Supes, and not just the ones that had come out.

"Okay, you're right. We're going to need more buildings. This will have to be enlarged, just for the kids living here. This house will be where they sleep, eat, and play. We'll have to have a different place for classes, vampire hidey-holes, steel-lined rooms, iron-lined rooms, light proof rooms. This is big!"

"And you're going to have to get government permission to be considered a school." Alcide supplied. My face must have shown my distaste, because Mr. Cataliades intervened.

"That, my dear, I can take care of. I actually brought all the papers. All you said on the phone was a school, but I assumed it would be a little more than that, or you would have been fine letting the world know. The government doesn't have to know it's for Supes. And the only grades that would be reported in a transfer to another school would be what any other school would teach. You have thought about the teachers you would need to hire?"

"Of course, I just didn't think of _so many_. The biggest problem with the teachers would be finding _Supes_ to live here and teach." That's when another thought hit me. "I'm going to need another building with apartments for teachers." Then lightening struck. "I guess we're going to be doing a little remodeling on my house as well. Dammit! I just bought a new car thinking since there was room for eight it would be enough to take the kids on field trips and stuff." I realized I was alone in the dining room with Mr. Cataliades and Alcide, I didn't know where Barry and Diantha had gone off to. Oh well, the house designs were my problem, not theirs.

"If you let the supe community know what you're doing before you actually get it started, I'll bet a lot would donate money to the building for reduced tuition for their kids." Alcide was brilliant! Yeah, brilliant and stupid. Who knew how many people would try to put this place out of business before it even started? I told him as much.

"Do you think all the vamps would leave us alone if they knew we were teaching fairies? Do you think that all the Weres would be happy with their kids being around vamps and fairies? Do you think all the fairies would be happy that vamps could make an appearance? No, we need to tread carefully." And they said _I _was naïve!

"You have a good head on your shoulders, Ms. Stackhouse." Mr. Cataliades was nodding his head in approval. Not that I needed it, but I was glad to have it. So I sat down and started drawing out plans.

"I'd have to after all I've been through," I muttered.

One necessary change was the bathroom situation. There was only one and it was downstairs. "Since this will be a school with boys and girls will the bathrooms have to be separate or can they all use the same one?" Alcide laughed at me so hard I thought his face would explode.

"You have to think of this like a business that feels homey. Not a home that happens to be a business. You'll have to have separate bathrooms, but you'll have to have stalls for the toilets, shower stalls, sinks with mirrors. Maybe you should take that new computer of yours and go on the internet and look up pictures of college bathrooms, or something."

"I barely know how to turn that thing on." I muttered. But I started designing a huge bathroom with toilets and showers and sinks and lockers. Like the bathroom at the gym in Shreveport I went to with Amelia once. I never went back because, I don't know if you know it, but a lot of people go to the gym to look at the opposite sex, or even to meet them. The thoughts those people had were even worse than the drunks at Merlotte's. There would be two of those large bathrooms upstairs (one for boys, one for girls) but we would also have to put in two downstairs that were just toilet stalls and sinks. PLUS we would need a whole building outside with two bathrooms, sort of centered between all the other buildings. Who would have thought of all those bathrooms?

We walked upstairs, where there were four bedrooms. I knew that wasn't going to be enough. But all the bedrooms were large. We could easily have eight bedrooms. But since we were expanding the bottom floor, the top could expand as well, and we could probably fit another four. No, maybe two, since we had to put in two huge bathrooms. Well ten bedrooms would take care of 20 kids, right?

"I think you need to build up, Sook." I looked at the ceiling a minute before I comprehended what he was saying.

"Three floors?" He nodded. I was starting to think this was going to be too big for me to handle.

"Let's see what that will do before we make a decision."

"Most people get grants and loans for this. If it's the money you're worried about, you could apply for the loans." Alcide said. I'd forgotten Mr. Cataliades was walking with us until he started laughing.

"Don't worry about the money, Mr. Herveaux, if your costs are too high, we have someone else lined up. Someone who's already agreed to a huge discount, nearly half-price as a matter of fact. However, Ms. Stackhouse insisted we try you first." Alcide swallowed hard. I didn't know if he was lying or just saying that to Alcide to get the price down. Either way I wasn't going to tell him any different.

It was decided that we would probably go through with the third floor, and both floors would nearly double in size. We would keep the Southern Plantation style to the house by keeping the wrap around porch; we would do that on the second and third stories as well. We would be able to fit around 40 bedrooms this way, and could fit a library into the first floor. I thought that was too much, but everyone else thought we should give girls one floor and boys the other, and we should put one kid per room until we needed to start putting in two per room, and if it was popular enough 4 per room(bunk beds).

The two properties I now owned would be combined into one. The woods would be a great place to put all the extra buildings we needed. The twenty acres Gran had left me combined with the nearly twenty acres Bill had left me would be bigger than I would ever need, even if there were a thousand kids here.

Most of the land was wooded, so we would have to cut down a lot of trees to make clearings to build in. Then we would have to pave lighted paths going from the buildings. The walks between classes would be long, but everyone needs exercise, right? From the road you would see a large house, with paths winding different directions. No one would know it was a school from the front.

We were also going to widen the driveway, it was barely enough room to fit my old car, Alcide's truck touched both edges; and we would need to fit big vehicles for taking large groups kids in and out. I needed that done fairly quickly, to be ready for the Monroe Monument Company in less than a week.

I wanted plants and flowers all around, flowers that Gran would grow. And the flowers the Bill had longed to be able to see the way they were meant to be seen, in the sunlight. Alcide said he could get a good rate with a landscaping company in Shreveport, but they wouldn't be able to do anything until all the construction was done. I was fine with that. Alcide also told me that fencing the land in was a definite necessity, as well as gating the drive. I didn't like that idea; it made me feel like it was a prison instead of a school. But after he reminded me of what could happen if out of control shifter children got out during the full moon, I relented.

"Since you're going this far with this, you should go all the way." The voice was female but I had to look twice to make sure if came from Diantha. Mr. Cataliades looked at her with raised eyebrows, I think that's as far as a shocked look could go on him.

"What do you mean Diantha?" I asked her.

"Most Supes are treated as though they're less than humans. Most don't go to college, how many Supe doctors, lawyers, CEO's, whatever, have you met?" When she saw I didn't get where she was going, she sat at the table opposite me and continued. "Give them opportunities that real private schools have. Teach them faster, drive them harder than a public school would. Encourage college and high-paying careers. The Supes that have come out would be accepted better if they could show they were contributing members of society. Most people look at shifters like they're just the white trash of the world, so they don't care about 'em."

"Wow," I smiled at Diantha, I'd had no idea she was that intelligent. I didn't know that she cared at all about any supernatural being besides demons. "Did you go to college?"

"Nope," she showed off those teeth again, "alwayswantedto."

"That's a great thought, Diantha." I passed the notebook and pen to her, "tell me what you think we need. What classes should we offer? Should we have career councilors come in sometimes? Should we use weekends to look at colleges? Tell me what would have helped you get to college. She smiled a big, genuine smile; her teeth didn't even look scary that time, and started writing furiously.

By six o'clock it was starting to get dark, and Alcide said goodbye, he left with about thirty pieces of paper in a stack, filled with measurements and requirements and hand drawn plan ideas for the main house and all the outer buildings. He promised to work on blueprints that night, after getting state school building requirements and looking up the actual land in the public records. He also promised to be back the next day to check out my house and what we needed to convert. I couldn't wait for the next day to get here!

Unfortunately, there was an unwelcome vampire visitor waiting on me when I got home.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author's Note:** This is a busy chapter! I hope you enjoy it. As fot the Professor Xavier references, well I wonder if that was a subconsious thing? I certainly never thought of it, but I do really like the X-Men movies, and the comics on occassion! I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine this weekend - AMAZING!_

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Chapter 7

"Ms. Stackhouse, how nice to see you." Felipe de Castro oozed as soon as I was in hearing distance. Two other unknown vamps were flanking him, like they were birds flying south for the winter, I tried hard not to laugh.

"You too," I lied, "What can I do for you, Mr. Castro?" I hoped I didn't sound as disgusted as I felt.

"You never returned my call, so we came to discuss the proposition in person."

"Please, have a seat," I gestured to the chairs scattered around the front porch. After he sat I positioned myself as far away from him as I could and still be in polite distance. Diantha, Barry and Cataliades sat as well. "Eric said he had returned the call for me. He actually said that as my husband he should be handling anything to do with my vampire dealings. He told me everything was taken care of."

"You have guests." De Castro was good at stating the obvious.

"Yes, we have business."

"What business could you have with another telepath and two demons?"

"Personal business." I heard someone's breath suck in, but ignored it.

"Feisty as ever I see." He was no longer smiling jovially.

"Please, Mr. Castro, let's get to business, I'm starving and would like to eat and get to sleep early, and as you noted I do have guests waiting."

"Would you like me to come back at a more convenient time?"

"No, let's just do this now, so we can hurry along."

"You seem to have healed awfully quick."

"The blood of a thousand plus year old vampire does speed the healing process, I've noticed." I took a second and when he didn't speak, I said, "You said you have business to discuss?"

"Fine. I did speak with Eric; he said the decision is ultimately up to you."

"And what decision would that be?"

"Why, whether to work for me or not, of course."

"And what work would I be doing for you?"

"Using your talents, of course." The way he said that soured my stomach.

"My telepathic ability you mean?"

"Of course, what else could I mean?" His nostrils flared a little as he leaned forward to sniff me.

"I need more details before I give you a yes or no."

"You would move to Las Vegas, of course. You would have your own home, you could do as you please during the day. At night you would be required to be in my presence at all times, listening to the human minds surrounding me. You would be well paid, of course. In fact, you would make more a week than you make in that little bar in a year."

"I'll have to decline the offer, sir. I have a lot going on here at home. Family, friends, a job, a home that's been in my family over a hundred years. I'm not leaving Bon Temps." His eyes went to ice. Then he smirked.

"You didn't mention having a husband." He acted like he'd caught me in a lie, I laughed.

"I have that, too." I tried to think carefully about my next sentence. "Eric has agreed to my staying here, and he would not let me leave, for any reason."

"So, all that's standing in your way, is your friends, family, Eric and your job."

"And my home, my individuality, my independence, my entire life is here, and I won't leave it."

"I see." Felipe stood up. "I'll be seeing you, Ms. Stackhouse." And with that he was gone. I had a bad feeling about this. But I was a southern woman, and I had guests to attend to.

"What would everyone like for dinner?" No one mentioned Felipe's visit for the rest of the night.

We got my computer hooked up, Diantha even went to Bills and got some wires and something with an antennae and hooked the satellite up through my cable. I was amazed, I could sit on the couch and use my computer!

We looked up pictures of college bathrooms, and saw that I wasn't far off in my designs. We looked up private schools, and they were all so grand! Mine just wasn't going to compare. I felt my first smidgeon of doubt right then, but pushed it away. Was I going to need all these sports fields too?

It was around eleven when Barry and Mr. Cataliades went to Bill's to sleep for the night. At midnight, Diantha went to bed, but I just couldn't leave my computer. I had opened my Computers for Dummies book, and within minutes I was creating a task list.

At around one, I couldn't think of anything else that really needed done, so I started looking at pictures of famous places on the net. But there was beep and a small screen popped up saying 'new mail' I clicked okay and a read a message from Mr. Cataliades, saying he had found the state laws and requirements for opening a school, and brochures of other boarding schools I might want to look at to get ideas for mine. He thoughtfully included direction for downloading all the documents, and even printing them out.

I spent another hour just looking through all the documents he'd sent me, making notes on what would need changed or added to the current plan. But soon, I was too tired to keep my eyes open anymore, so I headed to bed.

The next day was more of the same. I was able to talk to Barry more about why I wanted him to work at the school. He was happy to help and excited to hear about Hunter. I was going to have to talk to Remy soon about Hunter's training, but if we could get the school built he wouldn't even have to attend public school for awhile.

Mr. Cataliades helped me fill out all the paperwork for the school, we were waiting for Alcide's estimate to try to set a tuition price. I knew I wanted the tuition low enough for anyone to attend, but it needed to cover most of the bills. I had enough money now to handle a little loss, but the money wouldn't last forever judging by how big an endeavor this was turning out to be.

Alcide came by in the afternoon, with rolled up blue prints. We all stood around the table in awe seeing those plans. They were amazing. Three floors on the main house, twelve small building scattered throughout the woods, each big enough for a small class size. He had some drawings as well, and Bill's house was changed into a mansion. I knew children would love to come here now. I felt we were getting some place. And tears began to fall yet again. Alcide put his arm around me, and I buried my face in his chest.

I got myself under control quickly and thanked him. I had to make a few changed because of the state laws Mr. Cataliades had found. We would need half the upper floors for girls and half for boys, there would have to be a wall separating them, without a door. So we would now need a stair case on each side of the house, leading to each section. Alcide said making the changes would be not problem, but that also meant two more bathrooms, which could cut down on the number of bedrooms we could have.

Barry and Diantha left the room when it was time for number crunching. The number was enough to make my heart stop, but Mr. Cataliades thought it was more than reasonable. He promised he would have a crew on it next Monday, four days away. He thought it best that we added on to my house, upstairs and down, to give room for the teacher's quarters.

"Do you think they should all have their own bedrooms and bathrooms, but share the living room and kitchen?" He asked.

"I think it depends on how many teachers we get. I thought we could make them small one bedroom apartments. I would keep one of them of course, and how many teachers would we need? Five should be enough right?"

"If you're building rooms for forty to a hundred and sixty kids, you might get away with five, but I'd recommend more." Mr. Cataliades chimed in.

"But they wouldn't all have to live here. There are homes in town, Sam's duplexes, some rent trailers and an apartment complex. Some teachers will have spouses and children, they might not want to live here."

"Okay, Sookie, we'll start out with six apartments. It might just be easier though to build a whole new building so you can keep your house how it is." I smiled at Alcide, that was sweet but he didn't understand the attachment.

"It's not what the house looks like Alcide, it's that this house and the twenty acres of land have been in my family for over a hundred years. It started out just one room. I'm excited about expanding it, and making changes. Every generation has done something to this house. And now it's my turn. I never thought I'd do this much to it. But it's good to have the option. Tearing it down, or leaving it would rip my heart out. But changing it won't bother me at all. I would like to have it match all the other building, and Bill's house too though. It shouldn't be too hard with all the expanding we're doing, right?"

"No, it shouldn't be a problem at all." Alcide smiled as he began making more notes.

Just like that, the issue was settled. My old farm house was going to become apartments for supernatural teachers, and I couldn't wait to see it.

Mr. Cataliades and Diantha left at nightfall, with a promise to be in near constant contact. He reminded me not to speak with anyone about our school and not to speak of it over the phone. Then it was just me and Barry.

We spent the next days in constant research. Barry had brought his family tree; it seemed his mother was really into ancestry before she died when he was young. I only had an old family Bible from Gran's side that only went back four generations. So, on the second day we went into the attic.

I passed Amelia's rooms, and was momentarily sad, remembering our friendship, and how it was likely over. And I had to remember Tray's death as well. I shook off the momentary melancholy, and continued to the walk into the attic. Gran kept even the attic clean when she was alive, but I hadn't had much reason to go up there. There was a thin layer of dust covering everything, but it was well organized, things packed away in tubs, trunks and boxes, all neatly labeled.

"Here's one labeled 'Photos'," Barry called from the opposite side of the attic. I raced over, we pulled off the lid, and Hadley was staring up at me. There was one of Hadley, Jason and me. Another photo showed my Grandparents, parents, Jason, me Aunt Linda, her husband and Hadley. The further down the tub the older the pictures. At the very bottom there were some black and white photos of people I didn't recognize. But we found no family tree.

We moved on, looking through box after box, eventually we tired. But we started again early the next day. We had to start going through boxes that were labeled to have nothing to do with a family tree. Quilts got taken out and refolded. We didn't seem to make much headway. I had to hope that Gran had some sort of family record, or at least a diary of her days with Fintan. But, we were close to giving up.

Eric came back on the third day. Barry had been staying at Bill's and immediately headed back there. _Make sure you rescind his invitation as soon as you get there_. I told him.

_Of course I will, you think I'm stupid?_ He mind laughed.

I walked onto the porch, I wouldn't let Eric in the house just yet. He had a lot of explaining to do.

"What have you been up to, lover?" His face was expressionless, but his voice hard.

"Just working, spending time with Barry, Diantha and Mr. Cataliades. They only left a couple days ago."

"Don't lie to me." He hissed. I raised my eyebrows.

"I'm not lying about anything Eric, if you have something to say, spit it out."

"Why did you visit Alcide?"

"Oh, that. I'm doing some remodeling. He promised a good rate." I flopped down into the front porch swing, right in the center, so Eric could not sit beside me.

"You didn't think you should tell me about this before I heard about it from others?" His voice was cold enough to melt the sun, were it out.

"No, the thought really never occurred to me. I'm not used to reporting my actions to anyone, especially before I act."

"You're making a fool out of me among the whole community." The more he talked the angrier I was getting.

"I don't want to fight, but you're starting to piss me off. I am not your girlfriend, I'm not your wife, no matter what you think, and I'm not your employee. Sometimes I'm not even your friend." I saw the hurt cross his face, replaced with the same cold expression so quickly I nearly missed it.

"You are mine, Lover. If you weren't mine you would be de Castro's blood and sex slave right now, you'd do well to remember that."

"Why did you let Castro come here?"

"He's been here?"

"Three nights ago. He said you told him the decision was up to me whether to work for him or not."

"And what did you say?"

"That I wouldn't leave my home, family and friends." I looked up at him, "oh yeah, or you."

"He accepted that?"

"He seemed to."

"Good." He sat across from me, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. "Why have you quit your job?"

"How did you find out?" I was going to kill Sam!

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that I was again the last to know." I shrugged, he could have known first, last or somewhere in the middle, I didn't care. We sat in silence. Seeing who could wait the other out. I was feeling like I could go till dawn, at least he'd have to go before then. Yup, I was going to win this one.

I mentally starting making lists of what else I could do to find out my family's history. Everyone says there is nothing you can't do online. Maybe I should look into it. My family had lived in this home since before the Civil War, though, so there should be something here! I began to get paranoid thinking about false bottoms in those old trunks, or hidden doors in the attic wall. Completely forgetting we were having a competition to see who could keep quiet the longest, I jumped up.

"Eric, I need a favor!" I reached out to grab him and walked toward the door. He was smirking down at me. "Not that kind of favor! I need your supernatural abilities." I drug him through the front door and up the stairs to the attic. "Tell me if there is anything hidden in here." He just stood there.

"It would help if I knew what I was looking for." Oh yeah. So I told him that Barry had come to visit to see if we could find anything in our family's pasts that would connect us and our telepathic ability. "So that is why Barry was here. I was afraid you'd changed your mind about not reading the thoughts of your bedmates." I glared, but went to start unstacking things along the walls.

"I'm serious, Eric. This is really important to me."

"If it's that important, I'll help you. I'd just like you to look at how unfair you're being. You expect me to help when you need it, yet you won't offer the same thing to me."

"Eric!" I nearly shouted, "I don't want to argue. Help or leave. Those are your choices." He heaved a large sigh, and started feeling around the walls and the floors. I really didn't think it would work, and after a couple hours searching through every trunk box and tub I had already been through, I was just feeling plain silly. A little while later though, I noticed Eric was standing with his back to me, but no longer moving. "What did you find Eric?" He had an old book in his hand, and he was struggling to open it. I'd never seen a vampire struggle to do anything. So, I just sat back and watched, amused for a moment.

After a few minutes, though, it was obvious he wasn't getting anywhere. And I held my hand out for it.

"Helping me, remember Eric?" He grumbled but handed it over. I was starting to like this Eric. The one that just did what I wanted. I wondered if he'd hang around, or if the other Eric would come back with a vengeance. I was voting for the latter.

The cover of the book looked wooden with carvings in an unfamiliar language. I unhinged the clasp on the side and it easily came apart. I looked smugly up at Eric, who gave me a haughty look.

"Wait!" _POP!_ I screamed, even Eric jumped back about a foot, crouching into attack position. Niall was standing in the middle of my attic. Quick as can be he jerked the book from my hand.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note:** Here's the conversation with Niall about Sookie's true heritage. This is completely different than the books, she's getting straight answers, no more hiding things from her. I'm trying to move the story along a little more than I have been, so it may seem rushed. Also remember that Niall has opened a portal to visit her, and needs to get back before anyone realizes what he's done. Originally it was only going to be a 10 or so chapter story, but the school has been a bigger project than I'd anticipated, and I've been so happy myself lately, that I haven't been able to bring the world down around Sookie, so it's been 'happy, happy'. It's looking like it will be a lot longer than planned._

_One more thing, I love getting reviews, and some of the PM's have been fascinating. Though it seems the ruder people prefer PM's to reviewing, so I'll say here, this is my story, I hope you enjoy it, if you find an error or inconsistancy, please tell me, but I don't need negative feedback, like (and I'm paraphrasing here) 'Eric is perfect, how could you turn him into this?' or 'I don't know how you expect anyone to like your story when Sookie and Eric are so far from who she is in the books.' or my favorite, 'If Sookie and Eric don't get together in this story I'll never read another word you write' etc. If you don't like my writing, my story or my characters, please stop reading. If you feel compelled to read even though you hate every word I've typed, don't bother reviewing or PMing me to tell me that. I don't have to post this story. I write for my own enjoyment, and hope that others can enjoy it, too. Some people are enjoying this, obviously, as I have over 70 story alerts, so I'd hate to stop posting when so many people are enjoying it._

_All that being said, I hope those who are enjoying the story continue to do so. And now, find out Sookie's heritage._

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Chapter 8

"Niall! What are you doing here? I thought you couldn't come back?" I gasped. I was leaned against the wall clutching my chest, because it felt like my heart would pop clean out of it. Even through the shock, I was still happy to see my Great-Grandfather.

"Sookie dear, I see you've found the truth of your heritage. The magic placed on this book summons me to you, so I could talk to you before you read it." He wiped his brow with a handkerchief. "Let's go somewhere more comfortable, shall we? And how about some of that excellent sugary cold tea you make?"

I raced to the kitchen getting Niall and I both a tall glass of iced sun tea I had just made that day, and heated up Eric a bottle of blood. I still kept True Blood stocked, but that was as expensive as I was getting. I knew that many other kinds were out in the stores now, which supposedly tasted more like blood, even some made with real blood. But if a vamp visited me, they could take what I offered or bring their own damn blood. At least I didn't buy that cheap Red Stuff, which no vampire would drink if they could help it.

I returned to the living room, handing out drinks, I had a moment where I wondered if I could trust Eric with my heritage. Then I felt bad, because I knew I could trust him with my life. Plus, how bad could it really be?

"I told you of Adele's relationship with my son Fintan. But there is so much more that you don't know. I'd hoped you would never find out. You may come to hate me before this story is finished." Oh, shit. This is going to be bad. I leaned back into the chair and I waited.

"In the past few years, Fairies have been mating with humans. There are a lot of part-humans on Earth with Fae blood, but that wasn't the case years ago. In fact it was discouraged. However, you know I fell in love with a human, and my son from that union fell in love with your Grandmother. But I'm telling you a different story here. One that doesn't even involve me..." He kind of, drifted off there.

"Umm, Great-Grandfather?"

"Yes, sorry. Even worse than mating with a human was to mate with a witch." A witch? Witches _are _human. I know Amelia was. He could see the skepticism on my face, obviously. "A natural witch. A natural witch is not human. They look like humans, they live among humans and behave as humans, but their genetic makeup is as different to humans as humans are to Fae. We can mate, breed, love, live together, but we're a different species all together."

"Are you telling me I'm part witch now?" I asked bluntly. I wanted him to get to the point.

"Let me try to explain before you jump to conclusions. A practicing witch, like your old roommates Amelia and Octavia are completely human, but have learned a practice which human's call witchcraft. A natural witch is born with the ability and can do magic with no teaching or learning at all. But the magic is then unpredictable. A natural witch who mates with a human produces a natural witch 100% of the time. But a natural witch that mates with a fairy can produce a multitude of combinations of fae and witch."

"So, if there was a witch in my family without any fae involved I would be a complete natural witch?" My head was spinning. Eric's eyes were wide.

"Yes."

"So who was the witch?"

"Your grandmother."

"My grandmother was not a witch! No way will I believe that."

"As her mother was a witch and there was no fae blood in the family, I assure you she was."

"No," I stated firmly. "If she were a witch she would have fought when those evil _things_ killed my mother and father. She wouldn't have died! Rene wouldn't have stood a chance against a witch. She couldn't have been a witch." I shook my head as though that would make it all go away. Eric started toward me, but my hand up; I couldn't handle his kind of comfort right now.

"May I finish before you have another outburst?" I nodded my head and he continued. "Your great-grandmother was Katelynn. She was a natural witch, but your Grandmother determined before she married your Grandfather that she didn't want those abilities, and had her mother bind her powers. She mated with a half-fae making your father more fae than witch. I, myself bound his powers when he was an infant. When your aunt Linda was born, she became more witch than fae, and Fintan was able to bind her powers on his own."

I was enthralled with his story, and found myself believing him, though I fought against it. How could Gran have been a witch without my knowing? Surely she would have thought about it at some point. Then again, I'd never caught her thinking about our heritage either. I'd never gotten the slightest hint that I wasn't fully human. I listened on.

"When your brother was born, it seemed that he got almost no fae but would have been a very talented witch. When he was only days old, he could produce a bottle of milk out of thin air. I had to sneak into the nursery without your parents knowing I was there to bind him as Adele asked. Seeing his ability, I was against binding him, but as he grew and we saw his resemblance to Dermot, not just in looks, but also in personality, I knew that was a wise decision. I'm afraid of the havoc he would wreck on anyone around him, especially those that displease him. It was unfortunate that we couldn't bind his fae. There is very little there, but more than enough to attract members of the opposite sex." He paused again, and I found myself nodding, agreeing with his binding of Jason, but it was getting to me soon, and I had a very bad feeling.

"Hadley didn't seem to get any abilities as a child, but she was bound as a precaution. I only saw her a couple times before and after she was bound. She didn't seem to have any ill effects. Fintan was the one to bind her."

"Then you were born you scared your parents. You did things they couldn't explain with their rational human minds. You were almost equal parts fae and witch. Though the percentage of each seemed to somehow add up to more than one hundred. We've never been able to find out why. I fought against binding you after I'd bound Jason's magic, which was so advanced for such a young child. But Fintan eventually did it. Your fae abilities came out after you were a few months old. When you wanted your parents you would just pop into whatever room they were in. At less than a year old, you realized your parents weren't as attentive as you needed, so you would pop to your Grandmother's house when you wanted food or just attention. You would even bring a diaper bag with you so you would have food, diapers and toys." He smiled at me, his eyes watery with remembrance. "I felt that was justified. I don't want to speak ill of your parents, so I'll just say that Adele was by far a better fit in raising you than they were." He took a deep breath and drained what was left of his tea. Uh oh, here comes the big bad.

"Fintan used experimental magic on you. He was trying to bind your fae ability. It was just becoming common for fae to mate with humans and we were just beginning to study binding fae powers, I argued to at least wait until the magic was perfected, but he wouldn't hear of it. We fought so badly that it turned physical; we nearly tore down the forest. I'm sure the local people of Bon Temps thought someone was letting off those fireworks humans love so much. After that, I was banned from seeing you. He thought I would undo the magic he'd done. He used more magic, to make it impossible for me to locate you; he shielded your entire town. It took a lot for him to do that, so he got Dermot's help. It seemed Dermot felt that if you were hidden I couldn't prefer you and your brother to him."

"Wait! If the town was shielded how did you find me?" Hearing this was better than reading a book, or even watching a movie. I just had to pretend he was talking to someone else every time he said 'you'.

"He didn't shield Eric, or Shreveport. I was able to find you once you were with him. I followed you home one night and hit an invisible wall. It took weeks to break down the shield. I watched you and Jason, it was the first I knew of Fintan's incomplete magic on you, hence, your telepathy. And it wasn't until then that I saw how much Jason's appearance and behavior resembled Dermot. I confronted Dermot, though it took a while to track him down, and he admitted to pretending to be Fintan and seducing your Grandmother." He stopped again, waiting for a reaction.

"Dermot raped my Grandmother?" He flinched.

"Yes, there is no better word for it than that, I'm afraid. I did not want you to know. Fintan didn't know. He honestly believed you were his granddaughter. Dermot didn't know his actions had produced a child until I confronted him. Dermot was disbelieving, but I thought knowing he had family would change him enough to bring him closer to me, and to the two of you. That backfired, of course. And it was me that led him to your door, and Jason's as well." I was stunned. I had finally found my family only to find out that everything was different. I felt the tears coming and Eric was on his knees in front of me in a split second.

"Lover, would you like to finish this another time. It can't be easy for you."

"No. Give me a minute." I stood up, grabbed Niall's and my empty glasses as well as Eric's empty bottle and walked into the kitchen. While refilling our drinks I got my composure back. I remembered that I was new, unbreakable Sookie. I would get through this, too.

Back in the living room, Eric and Niall seemed to be having a staring contest. Eric's lip was curled though Niall wore a pleasant expression.

"What's going on?"

"Your vampire here seems to think I have done you enough harm and you needn't know anything else. He thinks you would be better off if I returned to my realm and never came back again." Niall still looked pleasant but there was a gleam in his eye I didn't care for.

"Eric, you can keep your opinions to yourself! I asked for this knowledge. And he is my family, you have no right to try to keep my family from me."

"He's causing you pain."

"And you know this how?"

"I can see it."

"You haven't kept Jason away from me though he's caused me pain since the day I was born! You won't dictate my life or you won't have a part in it at all." He looked like I slapped him.

"I am protecting you, not dictating your life." I sighed, he was never going to get it, was he?

"You can't protect me from my family! You can't protect me from ex-boyfriends! You can't protect me from anything I willingly walk in to. This has got to stop. I can't handle it anymore." I heard Niall clear his throat, and I turned my attention back to him, essentially ignoring Eric, who noticed and wasn't happy.

"I'm sorry Niall; you don't need to hear our problems. Please continue."

"Dermot showed no interest to me in you or Jason. And instead of this bringing our family closer together, he went back to Breandan. You don't know the guilt I feel over this. I never meant to bring you harm. And I'm appalled that Dermot would like nothing more than to kill off his entire family. At least I think that is his plan. He certainly never told me either way. But, I can't believe he would have any other ideas when he was working for my enemy.

"I didn't know about Hadley's son until you asked for help in finding him. I went to visit once while everyone was sleeping. It seems Fintan must have bound him in one of his last acts before he died. However it was as incomplete as yours and his telepathy is as active as I'm sure yours was when you were his age."

"Hadley's son?" Eric looked at me accusingly. Shit! The one thing I never wanted him to know.

"The Viking didn't know?"

"I didn't want him used like I was when the vamps found out about me. I planned on secretly training him so that no one would ever know of his ability."

"You couldn't have told _me_?" Eric was visibly upset.

"The more people that knew the more likely it was that he would be found."

"I would have helped you with him. I would have protected him. No one would have found out."

"Like no one found out about me? You wouldn't have bragged to the other Sheriff's in your state and others about having not just one but _two_ telepaths?"

"I'm sorry I brought it up Granddaughter, but time is growing short. I can't have the portal open for long, so I must continue."

"Of course, continue."

"It seems Hunter's make-up is very similar to yours, about equal parts witch and fae. Unfortunately Fintan's binding of both of you has hindered your telepathic ability, but also caused you an inability to control it. We have the magic now, but I refuse to bind either of you further. I think you should be who you are meant to be. I'll gladly unbind you though, if you'd like."

"No. I have enough problems without adding unpredictable magic to it." That thought had me quaking.

"Perhaps in time you'll change your mind. And when Hunter is older we'll let him decide. Jason I will not unbind. There would be another Dermot running around." I didn't know what to say. Hell, I didn't know what to think. I was glad that the magic had been bound, though. I don't think I could handle any more than the telepathy. Gran was right to do that.

"I have to keep the portals closed, but I will visit when I'm able. There is no way for us to contact each other, so I'll pop in when I'm sure no one is watching the portal. I won't be able to feel you, and if you call for me it won't reach me. I'm sorry that I can not do more. Our visits will be short, but after all our recent losses I can't seem to bear the thought of not seeing you again."

"Niall, do you think we could make an appointment to discuss some other things? Maybe during the day?" I chanced a glance at Eric, who was glaring at both of us. "I'm sure once I think about everything you've said, I'll have more questions." I quickly tried to cover up my 'daytime' blunder.

"I'll come back within the next two weeks. I can't tell you when, because I don't know. I'll have to be very sneaky, especially during the day." He glanced at Eric then, _if it must be at night I'll make sure Eric is not around before I come._ I had never heard Niall's mind before, but he purposely projected the thought to me. I wondered if that would work with vampires as well?

"Thank you, Great-Grandfather. I'm glad you've told me the truth." Niall hugged me, put the book back in my hands, walked a few feet away, and disappeared.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note: **Sorry it took so long to get this up! It's been done for days, but I've been constantly on the run. This weekend I got a second carseat for the baby, a pack 'n' play, a changing table, a bunch of clothes - he now has 52 outfits for the first six months of his life! There was a lot more. A couple towns away had their yearly town-wide yardsale, it was GREAT! Oh, and I got some awesome patterns for cloth diapers, the good ones you pay $35 a piece for, so I bought material and I'm going to be working on making a million of those things. Seriously, making them comes out to about $3 a diaper! Anyway, my updates might not come as quick, but I'm trying! So, umm, yeah, that's my excuse._

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Chapter 9

I was left alone with Eric and my thoughts. Unfortunately, Eric doesn't like attention being taken off of himself, so my thoughts didn't get much consideration.

"Lover, we must talk."

"About what, Eric? What on earth is there to talk about?" I honestly couldn't think of anything but my bed and my old flannel nightgown. Plus Alcide's crew was coming tomorrow to start construction on Bill's house. Not Bill's house anymore. _My school._ But Eric couldn't know about that. Though Niall's big mouth had taken half that purpose away, I couldn't be angry with him, I was the one that let Eric in on the conversation.

"About us, about your heritage, about the bond, about your cousin. There is a lot to talk about. I also want to know you have been up to behind my back."

"I haven't been doing anything behind your back." I tried to sound outraged, but I'm pretty sure I failed, because that 'look' was back on his face.

"You're meeting with a demon lawyer, another telepath, buying cars, computers, clothes, remodeling Bill's house, you've quit your job, what are you up to, Sookie?"

"First, I bought _one_ car and _one _computer. Mr. Cataliades is the one with the responsibility for Bill's estate; I obviously have to see him. And I'm not remodeling Bill's house, the house belongs to me now, so I can do whatever I want with it. Bill never got it finished."

"If it were a simple remodeling job, Sookie, Alcide would not be madly hiring only Supe construction workers and making them sign a secrecy agreement." Smart, Alcide! I hadn't even thought of that.

"What makes you think that has anything to do with me?"

"Sookie," he growled out. I heaved a heavy sigh. I knew I couldn't keep the verbal tennis up.

"Fine, I don't want to tell you what I'm doing, because once I do if Madden or Castro ask you about it, you have to tell them." I noticed I was wringing my hands in my lap. "Look, Eric, just pretend the money has gone to my head and I'm spending willy-nilly because I can."

"I'll let you keep this secret for now, but I won't for long. If you don't tell me I'll make someone else." He started to pace again. "You haven't been acting like yourself since Bill's final death. Please tell me why." His beautiful blue eyes were wide, beseeching.

"I've wanted a new car for awhile, that was my biggest expense, you know. Back when you gave me that money for keeping you here, I was going to spend that money on a new car and some clothes, plus pay my property taxes. But then Charles Twining burnt my kitchen down, and the money had to go to fix it."

"I would have bought you all the cars and clothes in the world, don't you know that?"

"Yes, but it would have made me a kept woman. That's not who I am." I didn't get to finish because Eric's angry growl cut me off.

"I thought with everything you went through, you would be above that now! I thought it would make you a little smarter about everything. I assumed you would lean on me." He threw his hands up, for once at a loss on what to say.

"It did change me. It made me realize that I need to be more independent than ever. That if something else bad happens, I need to depend on no one but myself. I can't let you take responsibility for me. I can't let anyone. I have to be my own person. I won't be owned, treated as an asset or made to do anything against my will."

"If you don't let me protect you, do you think you'll be allowed to just live a normal life? Do you honestly think that the supe community will just leave you alone? You're a valuable asset to anyone that can get to you, and without my protection, you're just property to be fought over."

"You're not going to scare me into your way of thinking. I'm not afraid of it anymore. You can say anything you want. I have a plan. I won't change my mind."

"You still won't live with me then?"

"I have two homes now, right here," I waved my hand around. "Why would I go anywhere else?"

"For your _safety_!"

"Who is coming after me now, Eric? What do I need to watch out for? I'll surround myself with people that can protect me if I need to. Hell, I'll hire my own damn bodyguard if necessary! But if you don't tell me what to watch for, how can I watch for anything?"

"Dermot did not go back to the fae realm." I swallowed hard.

"He can't hurt me in my home. Niall is the only fairy that can enter with the wards in place."

"How long will the wards last now that the witch isn't here to hold them up?" I hadn't thought of that. "I can already tell they're slightly diminished. And Fae magic is much stronger than a witch's magic."

"Amelia will be back, she said she was only leaving for a couple weeks, maybe a month."

"Has she called you since she's been gone?" he sneered. I shook my head. "I doubt she's coming back, she blames you for Tray's death."

"That's not fair, but she was in love with him, can you blame her?" I asked him.

"I don't know." He had that weary look back on his face, making him look much older than his 'frozen at thirty-five' body.

"I'll call Octavia tomorrow, did you know her boyfriend is some kind of sorcerer?"

"No. I didn't know they existed anymore. How do you know what he is?" He seemed very intrigued, uh oh.

"Amelia told me."

"What does he look like?"

"He has all these tattoos on his face, and…"

"Are they circles?" I nodded my head. "Make sure I know ahead of time if he comes here. I'd very much like to speak to him."

"Why?"

"Sorcerers are a kind of natural witch that Niall told you about. But they have other abilities. Necromancy." I gave him a blank look. "They control the dead." He explained.

"Vampires too?"

"Yes."

"Why on earth would you want to see him?"

"I have my reasons," he smiled that fangy smile that made me wince.

"Since we're talking here, instead of arguing for once," I sent him a pointed glare, "I need to say something." He gestured for me to go ahead. "When Quinn was here, he asked me something. Something that's been weighing on me. He asked why I wanted him to put me first but didn't demand it of you or Bill or anyone else in my life. Do you think I did that?"

"I really don't want to talk about your past relationship with the tiger." I just stared at him, and he sighed again, that was becoming a bad habit for him. "I do believe you expected more from him than from us. You considered him human, though he isn't, and expected him to behave like a human. You learned with Bill that vampires are far from human, but there was no one there to teach you that about shifters." Wow, even Eric had confirmed it. Quinn was right.

"Where is Quinn?" I asked him. "I would like to talk to him again. Try to explain myself a little." His body grew stiff, his eyes cold.

"That's not possible."

"Why?"

"He is banned from this area. He came to see you when he was told to stay away. The king is dealing with him in Las Vegas."

"Dealing? Is he being hurt?"

"Probably whipped with silver. They won't do anything to him that won't heal. When he's released, if he comes back, he'll most likely be killed. You'll want to stay far away from him unless you want him dead. Of course, I won't have a problem with that." He smiled again.

"How do I get that reversed? How do I get him back in this area?"

"We would have to get divorced, then you would have to take your appeal to the king."

"How do I do that?"

"After we're married for one hundred years, a divorce is automatic in my world. Unless you plan on being turned, or having your powers unbound, you will never be allowed a divorce."

"There is no other way?"

"Not unless one of us died."

"What would happen if I went to Castro still 'married' to you?"

"He would have to break the bond, which would mean death for one of us. Since you are the one he wants, it would be my death, I'm sure." He spoke about it calmly, with no sense of the danger he spoke of.

"Isn't there another way to break the bond?"

"If you bonded with another, but our marriage would still be intact. And that person would be put to death."

"What is it about vampires and putting people to death?"

"Vampires can recover from just about anything. They could be tortured daily for a hundred years and recover. Death is the only thing most of us are afraid of."

"Why did you trick me into marrying you?"

"To protect you. To keep de Castro and Madden far away."

"But I don't want to be married."

"Then how about this for a reason," he leaned forward. "I just told you that you had to either bond with someone else or I would have to die to end the bond. I would be killed to get to you. I was saving my own ass as well as yours."

"Of course you were saving your own ass, you wouldn't have done it if there weren't something in it for you, right?"

"I have lived a long time, lover, and I didn't get this far by putting humans first. You're the first human I've ever went out of my way to protect. That means something to me, whether it does to you or not."

"Oh, it means something all right. It means you want to own me, possess me, control me. But that's something you will never do. I don't care if I meet _my _death avoiding it."

"You won't always feel that way. You'll come to see my side of things, and soon."

"Well, if that's all you wanted to say, I'd like to go to bed. I need to be up by five thiry. The construction workers will be here at seven, and I have to look over the plans and give Alcide the first installment before they can get started."

"Why don't I stay here with you for the night, dawn is soon, you know." He waggled his eyebrows at me suggestively.

"I need sleep, Eric. Maybe another time." He feigned disappointment, kissed me quickly and left.

That night my dreams were of Eric, he was in my front yard, surrounded by strange vampires, fighting a losing battle with a long sword. I screamed awake just as they were about to take his head. It was so bloody and gruesome that I raced to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet.

Putting the dream out of my mind, I brushed my teeth and showered, getting ready for my day. I couldn't help my thoughts returning to my conversation with Niall. Thinking of how Dermot had tricked my Grandmother, I felt sick all over again. Why do supernatural creatures think they can do whatever they want and pay no consequences? I hope Dermot was far away, and that I would never have to see him again. There was a thought in the back of my mind just itching to get released, but I could quite put my finger on it. So I put it away.

For this day, the first day of construction, I decided to wear jeans and a t-shirt. None of my new clothes, I even put on my shit-kickers. I was feeling very masculine as I ate my breakfast and drank my coffee. I wrote out the check to give Alcide. And I don't know why, but I then wrote out checks for the other 5 installments I would pay him over the next six months, I didn't date the checks, but instead put them in a manila folder with a post-it note on each with an explanation of when to give them to him. After thinking about it, I wrote out another check, just in case the actual cost was higher than the estimate. Seeing there was still plenty of time before Alcide would arrive, I got out my laptop, which was quickly becoming my new best friend, and started on a typing game that came with the computer. In the week I'd had it, I'd been practicing, and could now type thirty-five words a minute. This game on made it fun though, and I was constantly trying to increase my speed.

When the sun had completely risen, I checked my task list, added 'call Octavia' to it, and closed the computer. I poured the last of the coffee into a large mug, and began making my way to Bill's place.

At seven on the dot a long line of trucks pulled into the drive. All the trucks were loaded down with men, lots of wood, tools and even drywall. I thought that was awfully ambitious. I assumed it would take weeks just to take off the roof. There were at least thirty men and I could tell by their brain patterns that they were mostly supes. Most seemed happy to have the work, I could tell, but I couldn't tell much else. I wondered about what Niall said, my telepathic ability had been hindered. Would I be able to read them as clearly as humans if I hadn't been bound as a child? I shuddered at the thought.

"So what's on the agenda for today, Alcide?"

"Let me tell you first, it wasn't easy rounding up all these guys, and to do it for the rate I quoted, I had to pay them a little less than I would have liked. If you can supply drinks for throughout the day and lunches, I think you'll have a happier group of workers." I thought about that for a minute, thinking it wouldn't be a problem. I could get a big grill while I was out today, and have hamburgers and hot dogs with a bunch of chips. And it wouldn't take too much to fill up some coolers with water, pop and sports drinks.

"I can do that."

"The plan is to work six days a week, so we can be done in six months like you wanted. If you know anyone that knows a little about construction it wouldn't hurt to hire them on as well."

"Terry would probably be happy to help, but he's working for Sam a lot more lately, and I don't know how he would handle being told what to do. But I don't think I know anyone else."

"What about that brother of yours? Didn't you tell me he was hoping for a job with me a long time ago?"

"Yeah, but I don't know that I could trust him with this. But he did just get fired. He's always taken his work seriously, though. If he were working for you, not me he might. His best friend Hoyt is real good with building, too. The two of them fixed my roof last year after the ice storm. I'll go talk to him. What are you paying your men, so I'll know what to tell him?" He gave me a starting rate that had me wishing I'd been doing construction all these years instead of waitressing. He said that if he worked out he'd get more jobs with him. I tried to think of what Bill would want. He'd given so much money to his family even though they hated him, what could it hurt to give Jason some money, especially if he was working to earn it?

"I'll talk to Holly before I even talk to Hoyt about the job. They're planning on getting married, and Holly's a witch, so I planned on asking her for some help around here anyway. Maybe she'd be able to switch off with me in cooking the lunches for the guys, too. I just want to make sure she's okay with Hoyt working with Jason because she doesn't like Jason all that much."

"Now, let's look at the newest plans." Someone had set up a table with sawhorses and plywood, so we went there and he unrolled the newest blue prints. Everything looked amazing to me. Walking into Bill's house there was a receptionist desk. That was one of Diantha's suggestions, she said we could have older students mind the desk, where they could learn about working in an office. There were two doors off the entry, the left went to the huge dining room, big enough to seat at least a hundred. Off the dining room was the kitchen, it was the easily the biggest kitchen I'd ever seen, but it was necessary. The right door off the entry led into the living room, or as the school plans I'd seen online called it, the 'common room'. It was nearly half the bottom floor. I hoped it was big enough. There were two sets of stairs in the entry as well, one on each side of the reception desk. The left led to the girl's side, the right to the boys'. Behind the stairs, between the kitchen and living room was a small library. I planned to fill it with all sorts of books, but mainly non-fiction books on all things supernatural. There would also be room for about a dozen computer desks. It was exciting to see.

Alcide flipped to the second page in his stack, the second floor. It was nothing special, two large bathrooms and ten rooms on each side, plus two more sets of stairs going to the third floor. The third page looked almost identical to the second but there was one larger room on each side with its own bathroom.

"What's this?" I pointed to those bedrooms.

"State law requires an adult to oversee each side. I didn't think an adult would want to share a bathroom with the kids."

"That was good idea, I'd never even thought of it." He flipped the page again, and I was staring at a house similar to Bill's but a lot smaller. "What's this?" He smiled his big Alcide smile.

"This is your house when we're done with it." I was again amazed; it was two floors with wrap around porches on both levels. Each floor had three identical one bedroom apartments, with its own office. They seemed like good sized apartments, too. But I couldn't be sure cause it was only a drawing.

"This is beautiful, Alcide." I whispered. He gave me a minute to go over the details, and imagine it once completed.

"The plan for today is to build the foundation out, with this many guys it should only take a couple days to have the foundation completely finished. Then we'll build on to the first and second floors. We won't rip the roof off until after that. I figure that'll give you time to get the house cleaned out. Once we get everything framed, should take a couple a months, we'll tear the rest of the house to studs.

"Only then will we start on all the outer buildings. I only have one plan for all of them. I figure they should all look the same."

After praising Alcide a little more, I walked back to my house. I updated my task list to include visiting Jason, Holly and Hoyt. But first, I decided to call on Sam.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Author's Note:** Sorry for the massive delay in getting this chapter out. I'd had it written, but the compute got infected my some stupid e-mail virus and I spent HOURS getting it back to normal, only to find out it had infected the entire operating system, so I had to wipe the ENTIRE computer! I lost this story and another one I was working on. I was pretty mad about the whole thing! But it's done, and here it is! I'm not completely happy with it though, the first time I wrote it it was much better. Oh well._

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Chapter 10

It was still too early for Sam to be at the bar, so I parked in front of his trailer and walked straight to the front door. This time he answered the door in even less, it was obvious I'd woken him up. I had to look in another direction, because seeing him standing there in nothing but boxers had my body thinking thoughts I didn't want it to think.

"Sorry, Sam, I didn't even think about how early it was!"

"No problem cher, come in. Let me go throw some clothes on. I sat on his couch and tried to remember what I was doing there. Oh yeah, school, Sookie! Hungry construction workers. But when he sat down across from me that wasn't what came out of my mouth.

"Why'd you tell Eric I quit my job?"

"He called asking about you and I told him I couldn't answer anymore questions, cause you didn't work for me anymore. I didn't know it was a secret." He looked apologetic, but I could clearly see he was glad to have Eric off his back.

"That's not why I'm here anyway. Remember I told you I was doing something I couldn't talk about yet?" He nodded his head yes. "Well I'm remodeling Bill's house right now, and there are thirty something workers working at a reduced rate if I supply drinks and lunch. I'm going to get a big grill and give them hot dogs, hamburgers and chips most of the time, but since it's the first day, I wanted to give them something a little bit better. I thought maybe I could hire you for forty meals. I know its short notice, and if you can't I understand…"

"That's not a problem, Sook, I'll call the new cook in early, have him cook up baskets of cheeseburgers and chicken tenders. Are there any vegetarians?"

"They're mostly weres of some sort, so I doubt it."

"Around noon, ya think?"

"Yeah, I'll call Alcide and tell him."

"Okay, I'll even bring them out myself."

"You can bring the bill out with you, and I'll pay it then, if that's okay?" I smiled, "I can pay with a check can't I?"

"Of course. I'll even give you your employee discount, too."

"Oh, Sam you don't need to do that!"

"I want to, cher. It'll be my little way of helping you. You gonna do this just the once or is it gonna be a weekly thing? "

"I thought it would be nice to do it, maybe every Saturday? They're working six days a week, so just kind of as a 'thank you' for being there on Saturday. The rest of the week we'll go with whatever I can grill that's on sale at the Piggly Wiggly."

"Okay, I'll make sure I order enough extra food in for that. Who knows, it could bring me some more business." We smiled at each other another minute.

"I need to run something by you. Alcide asked if I knew anyone else that was good at construction, and I thought of Terry first, but I doubt he'd be happy having Alcide telling him what to do all day, and I know he's been working here a lot, and I didn't want to take your employees. So then I thought about Jason, cause he just got fired over the whole Crystal mess. Then, naturally I thought of Hoyt, but I didn't want to ask Hoyt unless Holly was okay with it. Then I thought that Holly might be able to help me out with cooking the lunches. You know on the days she's off, just to make some extra money. There aren't many people I'd trust with what I'm doing, but I know Holly wouldn't talk."

"What are you doing, Sookie?"

"How about I just show you when you get there?"

"Okay, and I don't care what Holly does on her days off. If she agrees to it she's your employee on those days. And Terry might surprise you. He might be good to have around. He sure knows what he's doing when it comes to construction. I'd trust him over that brother of yours any day."

"Thanks, Sam, I'd better be going. I got to get to Wal-Mart and get lots to drink for those guys, plus talk to Holly, Hoyt and Jason, if you have time, and want to, you can call Terry, if not I'll get to him in the afternoon. I'll meet you at Bill's at noon."

I pulled out my cell phone as soon as I got out of Sam's trailer. Holly was at home and would be glad for the company. She still lived in the Kingfisher Apartments, so I knew how to get there. She opened her door, smiling, her hair seemed to be freshly died, or stripped, or something. It didn't look dipped in tar anymore, it was all light brown.

"Sookie, it's good to see you. I heard you quit working with us." She pulled me into her apartment had me sit, and she got us both some ice tea.

"Yeah, I came into a little bit of money and I'm starting my own business with it."

"Really? What kind of business?"

"It's sort of a secret right now." I could see her mind closing to me, so I added. "You're one of the few people I trust with it, but I have to ask you a couple things first." Her expression turned wary. I was glad I was blocking her mind, I didn't want to know what she was thinking.

"What do you want to know?"

"Oh, no! Nothing like that! The first thing is about Hoyt. I know you don't like him hanging out with my brother very much, but how do you feel about them working together?"

"You didn't know Jason got fired? They don't work together anymore."

"I know Jason got fired, but I'm thinking of offering them both a job, working for a friend though, not for me. I value your opinion and I wanted to talk to you about it first." She beamed. Everyone likes you to inflate their ego.

"What kind of job?"

"Have you heard of Herveaux and Sons?"

"Who hasn't?"

"Well, Alcide is doing a huge construction project for me, but this is such a secret project that everyone has to sign a secrecy agreement, and so far most everyone involved are supes. Hoyt would be one of the few humans. Alcide said this would be like a trial run, if they did good on this job, then he would hire them himself for other jobs that came up."

"Didn't you date Alcide?"

"Something like that, but we're just friends now." How did _everyone_ seem to know about the time we 'spent' together? "If Hoyt took this job, he would be working six days a week, twelve hours a day, I would supply all the drinks and lunches. Merlotte's is actually catering their lunch today. But most days I plan on grilling for everyone." I told her the pay, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Sookie, if he wants to take that job, I have no problem with it at all. That's some good money. A lot more than he makes now."

"Just between you and me, Holly, that's low, the guys are all working at a discounted rate since it's for me. Most jobs would pay even more."

"Wow. I don't care if he's working with Ted Bundy for that kind of money!"

"I was hoping you'd say that. There's one more thing though, you know how I said I was supplying the lunches?" She nodded. "Well I was hoping I could hire you to cook them a couple days a week. Sam said it was okay on your days off. It would only be for a couple hours a day. You'd just cook the food, let them eat, and clean it up when they're done."

"That sounds easy enough." I told her how much I'd pay her for those two hours, and her thoughts got so loud, I couldn't block her for a minute. Then we got to the ugly stuff.

"I heard you and Eric got married." My nostrils flared and I wanted nothing more than to _not_ discuss this. "I'm sorry, I thought that would be a happy occasion. We don't have to talk about it."

"No, no, it's okay. It's just a sore issue. I was kind of tricked into it. I don't really want to go into it, but it's a supe marriage not a legal one in any way." I thought for a second and decided to plunge in. "What do you know about natural witches?" I felt her mind snap shut, she didn't want to talk about it obviously.

"Why would you ask about that?"

"Well, did you know I'm part fae?"

"You are? Oh that explains so much. I mean the reading minds thing, the eyes." She shut up.

"It seems the other part of my heritage is witch." I practically spit out the word. She laughed.

"I'm sorry Sookie, you've been misinformed. If you were a natural witch, you'd know it. There's no halfsies when it comes to _natural_ witches."

"According to my Great-Grandfather, Prince of the Fae, there is." That shut her laughter up. "He said his son, my grandfather, bound my powers when I was less than a year old, because I kept teleporting to my grandmother's house. He said a lot more, I don't want to get into it. But he wants to unbind my abilities. He said I would have better control over my telepathy if he did. But I'm afraid of all the other stuff that would happen."

"I've never met a natural witch, but from what I've read, they can control anything with their minds. Just thinking about something could make it happen unless properly trained. But there are very few natural witches in the world. There are witch hunters just like there are vampire hunters. Most keep to themselves. Wait a minute." She ran out of the room and returned a few minutes later with a thick book. "This is probably older than we are. But it tells more about witches than anything I've ever read. It might help." I accepted the book, and thanked her. We made small talk for a little while longer, then I excused myself to find Jason. Before I left I made her promise not to tell a soul what we discussed. But to tell Hoyt about the job. I took a peek into her mind to make sure, but it seemed she counted me as a friend and would not betray that trust.

Ten minutes later, I was in Jason's driveway, his gaudy truck was in it's usual spot, so I knew he was home. Damn, I was dreading this. I rang his doorbell, he answered it in seconds. He was fully dressed nearly identical to me. I felt his brain to make sure it was him, and once I was sure, I asked if I could come in.

His house was in better shape than I'd seen it in awhile. Every surface shone. I didn't see a spot in the house he hadn't cleaned.

"Wow, the place looks good, Jase." He smiled.

"Well, ain't got nothin' better to do. Nobody'll hire me, cause they think I killed Crystal or all those girls Rene got. I'm a good worker! But ain't nobody cares about that."

"That's actually why I'm here, Jason."

"You gotta job for me?" He smirked.

"I actually do. Can we sit down and talk about it?" Believe it or not, he went to the fridge and got us each a can of Dr. Pepper. I eyed mine with distaste, but figured I'd better get over it. There was no way this one was a bomb. I took a quick drink, and nearly moaned. I forgot how much I loved Dr. Pepper. Jason was staring at me in amusement. "Sorry, I haven't drank one of these since I picked up one that had a bomb in it." His eyebrows shot up.

"Sis, you get into the damnedest things."

"Tell me about it." I said under my breath. "Remember when you told me you wouldn't mind getting a job with Alcide Herveaux?"

"Yeah, I applied too! Even put you as a reference and he never called me back." He shook his head.

"Well, he's doing some massive construction on Bill's house, and he asked me if you were still looking for work."

"Hell yeah I'm lookin' for work. What's he pay? What kind of benefits is there?"

"I can guarantee it's more than Catfish Hennessey paid you." I told him the amount and though his face didn't react I saw in his mind that it was more than he expected. "Before I can give you any more details you have to sign a secrecy agreement. This is _seriously secretive_ Jason. I mean, word can't get out to anyone. If asked, you work for Alcide, and you're remodeling a house. Period. You're not allowed to talk to _anyone_ about it. And if you do, you'll be sued for breach of contract for the amount of the entire project." Okay, I was talking out my ass, but Jason didn't have to know that. I trusted my brother about as far as I could throw him, uh, without the vampire blood. "Can you handle that?"

"Of course I can. I don't have a big mouth. Who would I tell anyway, ain't like I got any friends left." His voice slowly dwindled to just a soft muttering that even I couldn't hear.

"What about Hoyt?"

"He's up Holly's ass all the time, she won't let him have nothin' to do with me."

"I talked to Holly today, she's going to help me supply the food for all the workers, and she would love for you and Hoyt to work together again." His eyes lit up.

"For real?"

"Go ahead and give him a call. I'll bet if you head out to Bill's now, they'll put you to work today. Me and Sam'll be bringing lunch out around noon." He was so excited about this job and working with Hoyt, that I took my Dr. Pepper and left him to it.

I drove out to the Wal-Mart, and got three big coolers, one of those big orange drink holders with spout, lots of pop, water and the Gatorade you mix with water. I also got more ice than I probably needed. And I stocked up on hamburger, hot dogs, chicken and even some steak that was on sale. I found the biggest grill they carried. The sticker on it boasted it could cook an entire cow at once. Yup, that's what I needed for those guys. I saw a large deep freeze and seriously debated on getting it, but I had a smaller one on my back porch already, I didn't need another one. When I saw the price at the checkout I realized it would probably have been better just to pay the men a little more and let them pack their own lunches. But a promise is a promise. Maybe I could alternate and give them lunch meat a couple times a week?

I drove straight to Bill's. Sam was already there. I spotted Jason's truck, so he was there. Overall I was feeling pretty good about my day.

Sam immediately began helping me get the drinks and ice in the coolers. I mixed up some orange Gatorade for the container. Everyone lounged around with food and drinks. Some on the porch, some on the ground, most were sitting on concrete blocks or tailgates. I plopped my butt right on the ground. I wasn't even halfway through the day and I was exhausted.

"Has anyone seen Barry?" I asked. Alcide started laughing.

"We woke him up; you could have told us there was someone asleep in there."

"I was so excited about getting started that I forgot." I reached out through my mind and found Barry, it seemed he was heading this way. _Sorry Barry, but we have food and drinks over here._

_I'm coming, and I'm starved. Don't you think you could have at least left the door to your house unlocked so I could get in?_

_I said I'm sorry. You'll have to sleep at my house until you go back, I guess. So I won't be able to accidentally lock you out now._

_Grumble, grumble grumble. _I laughed. Everyone was staring at me. "He's on his way here." I said, and started on my chicken tenders and fries.

After eating, I took Sam over to look at the plans. I didn't tell him what it was going to be.

"Wow, Sook, you opening a hotel?" I laughed.

"Nope, a school." He raised his eyebrows; gestured for me to continue. So I told him all about our ambitious project. He was really excited for me. ­­Even offered to help all he could. I was grateful at that moment to have a friend like Sam.

Barry, Sam and I drove to my house to put the food in the deep freeze, then Sam left to get to work. He had someone covering the bar while he delivered the food and stayed for lunch. And we were down to me and Barry again.

I talked to him about Niall's visit. He was excited about the possibility of being a witch, though he agreed not to tell anyone. He would be leaving the next day to find one, to see if he was indeed a bound witch.

"I don't want vampires controlling me. I don't want to be constantly scared that they're going to kill me if I read their minds." He stopped abruptly.

"Barry, I can't even do that." He raised his eyebrows, "okay, not very often."

"I only hear them from time to time. But each time I do, I think 'This is it, now is when they find out, now is when I die.' I don't want to live like that. I'm going to see if there is truth to this. Afterall, it may just be coincidence that we're both telepathic. Maybe we don't have a similar heritage. But I do want to find out."

We celebrated his last night with pizza and beer. I drank one and felt it, but Barry got good and tanked. I hadn't laughed so hard in awhile.

The next morning when I woke up there was note on the refrigerator door.

Sookie;

Thanks, and good luck. I'll see you soon!

Barry.

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**_Author's Note #2:_** _When I've talked about the money in this, it's not really that it's so much! It's just construction workers typically make good money. I was born and raised in a one stop light town, and WOW when I got a job making double minimum wage (in ohio minimum wage JUST went up this year from $5.15 to $7.30) a few years ago, I thought I was in the money! lol I'm thinking Bon Temps is a lot like my small little town. Even the 'good jobs' pay little more than minimum wage, then you get a construction job more than doubling it - it's a lot! So she's not really just tossing her money around, it's just that everyone is 'poor-ish' already._


	11. Chapter 11

_Author's Note: Sorry for the delay - AGAIN! After redoing this ENTIRE chapter (and two others) I discovered that I hadn't gotten rid of those viruses after all! So, this time I COMPLETELY wiped the computer again and put Vista back on it - YUCK! I hate Vista! But, now it's been rewritten for the THIRD time, and I hope it's decent, frankly I was getting sick of typing the same things over and over, so once again - not completely happy with it, but I thought getting something out was better than trying to perfect it! Thanks for all the reviews adds, and PM's, every single one makes a difference, and those of you wondering when the action was coming - it starts in the next chapter! Enjoy!_

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Chapter 11

The next few weeks flew by, construction was going at a rapid pace. Jason had gotten Alcide to hire some of the werepanthers from Hot Shot that were out of work. They were all hard workers, and I was proud of Jason. Hoyt had put in his notice with Catfish and started a week later. Catfish wasn't happy with me, but I couldn't please everyone.

The company Alcide hired to widen and pave the driveway came out on the third day. It was just a concrete driveway, but made the project come to life. The Monroe Monument Company came after another week, days later than promised, but I wasn't complaining.

They pulled two large statues off of the back of their flatbed truck. I had them place them at the entrance to the driveway, one on each side. The first was nearly nine feet tall; a black marble angel standing on a pedestal, wings splayed out behind and on either side. The angel had Bill's face. Engraved on the pedestal was "In Honor of William Compton, 1840-2006. The Spirit of This Hero Will Live Forever." I felt the tears come, and I didn't try to stop them, while I stared at his handsome face, forever incased in marble.

The second statue was shorter, but much wider, it was made of white marble, another angel, this time with Claudine's face, she was sitting Indian-style on a pedestal, her wings splayed out similar to Bill's, her face angled down looking at an infant she held in her arms. Engraved on the pedestal of this one was: "In memory of Claudine Crane and her unborn child, - a friend, family, and Guardian Angel".

That was the first and only sad day for awhile, I spent the day just remembering them. Keeping their faces in my mind. I cried the entire day, and when Niall came to visit two days later, I had him walk with me to Claudine's statue.

"Great-Granddaughter, this is perfect." He wiped the tears from his eyes with a handkerchief, and just stood looking at her for awhile, before turning away. "Let's not dwell on the unpleasant." We walked slowly back to my house, he told me more about the Fae realm than I'd ever hoped to know.

"How many fae do you think are left in our realm?"

"I doubt there are any full fae, but half or less fae, I would say there are many." I told him about the school I planned on opening, and why I didn't want Eric to know. Then I asked the big question.

"Is there a way to break the bond without one of us dying?"

"It can be weakened, but never broken," he answered sadly.

"I haven't felt him in awhile. He says he can't feel me either, do you think we've weakened it somehow?"

"I don't know. I can't see the bond, it's not visual. The Fae don't have much interaction with vampires, other than war. Blood bonding isn't something we know about. I'm sorry Granddaughter; I wish I could be more help." He hugged me again, telling me he didn't know when he could come back. It could be years or days. And he was gone again.

I was taking a class in Shreveport at the career center, learning all about computers. I was actually a quick learner. After three short weeks I was able to use Microsoft Office like a pro. All the construction expenses were going into my laptop in Excel. The instructor, Ms. Harrison, promised there was a better program for it, but it worked better than a pen and paper so I was happy.

Eric visited every couple of days, he never pushed me after the last time. In fact, I began to wonder if he were giving up. It just didn't seem like him. I was happy to ease back into the casual friendship we once had. Even if I was his 'wife', he stopped telling me what to do. And I didn't hear a word about my safety or protection for awhile. On some visits he would bring handpicked flowers, other times I'd just find a card around with a message like 'Missing you, E', or something equally sweet, never lascivious. Once he brought me a bottle of wine, and we had an enjoyable night, sitting on lawn chairs in the backyard, telling stories. He'd led a very interesting life his past thousand years.

The first of the month came and I had an e-mail alert from the bank. A large sum of money had been placed into my account, over numerous transactions, but I had no idea why. I called Mr. Cataliades immediately, and asked why my bank account suddenly had thousands more in it than it did the day before.

"You didn't look over the last packet I sent, did you, Dear?" I picked up a manila envelope, still sealed sitting on my new desk in the corner of the kitchen.

"Umm, no?"

"You own buildings that are being rented. Look through the papers and call if you have any questions." We got off the phone quickly, and I ripped open the envelope. The first one on the list was the building that housed 'Tara's Togs", another one in Shreveport, one in Monroe, too. How did he own all this without me knowing? At least there were only the three buildings, though each housed numerous businesses, and they were all close. It wasn't like I would have to get a passport so I could see the house I now owned in England.

I decided I would head to Tara's Togs. I wondered if she even knew I was who she was paying rent to? Her rental agreement was in the back of the stack, there were several blank agreements, too, with my name instead of Bill's. I read over Mr. Cataliades letter, where he stated I would need to contact all the business owners and have them sign new rental agreement. Obviously the ones with Bill's name on them were void.

So, I decided my visit to Tara would be equal parts business and pleasure. I hadn't seen her since before the Fae War, and I hoped everything was alright. I dressed up for the day, since I wanted her to know I was happy. I got another new sundress out of the closet. This one was white with little yellow flowers, snug to the waist where it flared into an a-line to just below my knee, a little yellow sweater jacket came with it. I put in yellow ball earrings, with matching necklace and bracelet. Digging through my shoes, I was still happy about my new collection, and wore a pair of flat yellow sandals. Looking in my mirror, I looked straight out of the fifties. I thought I looked cute.

I drove over to check on the construction; Holly was going to be serving lunch that day. The worker's seemed to be set as far as drinks went. Other than a few hoots and hollers, I was barely noticed, hell I was there nearly everyday. Not many workers have the guts to ogle the boss. I checked in with Alcide to make sure Jason was working out.

"You're brother's a hell of a worker, Sook." Alcide told me.

"Yeah, I just wish he lived his life the same way he worked." I confided.

"Well that's something I don't have much control over. Not one of my regular workers seems to have a bad thing to say about him though." My eyebrows shot up.

"Really? That's unheard of. I was afraid he'd be screwing the worker's wives or something by now." Alcide laughed.

"He'd be stupid to do something that crazy. He's surrounded by Weres and shifters."

"He isn't known for his good decision making ability." We chatted for a few minutes, and I headed out to Tara's.

Tara was already showing. She had the tiniest baby bump under her very business-like gray suit. She threw her arms around me before I was all the way through the door.

"Sookie, it's been forever! Where you been, girl? One of them vamps is takin' good care of you!" I was a little insulted at her comment, but overlooked it, for now.

"I've just been busy." We spent awhile catching up, before I brought up the business portion of my visit. "Did you hear about Bill?"

"What about him? I haven't seen him in awhile. Is he out of the country again working on that project of his?"

"No, Tara, Bill is dead." She just looked at me. "I mean finally dead." Her mouth dropped open.

"No, not Bill. He can't be."

"Trust me, Tara, he is." Once again, I was tearing up. I had thought I was over it, but do you ever get over the death of your first love? I told her everything that happened. I didn't leave out a single detail. Maybe I needed someone to understand the horror of it all. Everyone else who knew were supes, they saw horror all the time. But Tara and I, well we were human, well maybe I wasn't, but I was close enough. That's when it hit me. "I'm not even human Tara. I'm a supe, too."

"Honey, you've always known you were different. It's nothing to be upset about! There's just a little more that's different than you thought." She was being so logical, normally I would appreciate it. But I wanted her to see the horror of what I was saying. I grabbed her shoulders.

"No, you don't understand. I've lived by all these beliefs, my whole life I thought things were one way, then I found out they weren't. And now I know they're even more different than ever." She looked at me blankly. How could I make her understand? "Tara, if I let Niall unbind my abilities, I could live a thousand years! If I have children they'll be like me! I've been reading this book Holly gave me, and if you knew what witches are capable of you'd just die!" I could tell she still didn't understand. "Okay, I am less human than a Were!" I babbled on and on until she finally put her hand on my shoulder, pushing me slightly away.

"Sookie, it's not the end of the world! Think of what this could mean for _you_! You wouldn't have to have someone to defend you all the time. You wouldn't have to wait for a vampire to save you if you got kidnapped. This is the independence you wanted. _This _is it. This is how you save _yourself_." I sat back, stunned. I hadn't thought of it that way.

"I could be one of those psychics, though. Isn't the telepathy bad enough?" I thought of what I would read from the minds of vampires, fairies, demons and shifters, and the thought made me cold.

"Didn't you say the incomplete binding is what makes you unable to control it? Think about it, if you could have read the minds of those people torturing you, you would have known what they were planning, you could have had a defense planned. Maybe they couldn't have taken you at all." My mind was reeling with the possibilities. I was just a plain old barmaid. Nothing special. But no, that wasn't me anymore was it? I was no longer a barmaid. Instead I would soon be running a school for supernatural children. To be who I wanted to be, maybe I would need to take this risk. I hugged Tara.

"Thank you. I've got a lot to think about, don't I?"

"And hey! If you still don't want to be married to Eric – you can date again in a hundred years!" I reached out acting like I was going to smack her.

"Do you know who your new landlord is, by the way?" Her eyes got wide.

"You?"

"Yup. And now for my _unpleasant_ reason for coming here." I pulled out the new rental agreement. "I hope this doesn't cause us any problems. I feel funny owning the building your store is in."

"This is great, Sook! No offense, but I feel better that the money's going to you instead of a vampire." She shrugged and signed without even looking. "You know this means you get a discount, right?" I spent the next hour searching through the store, trying on clothes, and spending the entire amount she spent on renting the shop from me. I felt that was the least I could do. Maybe I would do this once a month, it would keep my wardrobe fresh, it would help my friend, and I wouldn't feel like I was taking her money.

I spent the next few days going to all the new places I owned. I had to explain to each business owner that I was the new building owner. Some were sad that Bill had died, some were happy. But it seemed the rent he'd charged was fair. I didn't know how he'd managed to keep up with it all, only having the nights to play owner.

A few nights after visiting with Tara, I sat on my front porch, drinking a glass of sweet tea, reading Holly's book, and rethinking all she'd said. I was amazed at the abilities some witches had. There were different kinds of natural witches, but I assumed I was one of the seers, people with psychic ability, who were typically telepathic as well. I'd always wondered if I had a little psychic ability, and I was guessing I actually did. Now that was scary. It would have been nice to be one of the healers, though. They didn't just heal burns and cuts, they could heal _souls._ They could literally take the pain from memories. That would be a nice talent to have. How many people had I met that were so damaged it seemed as if there very souls were torn apart?

Just to be silly, I recited a few verbal spells, of course nothing happened. I laughed at myself. I was sure that even Niall couldn't be right all the time. I couldn't find anything about binding in the book. I wondered how someone bound someone else, and how would they unbind them?

And the biggest question of all, did I want to be unbound? I knew it would help my school, I'd even found spells that would light someone on fire with a word or two! There were spells that would _burn_ a vampire if they tried to harm me. This was serious protection. I couldn't believe that all that time I'd had with Amelia, I'd never even looked at one of her spell books. She was awfully secretive about her witchcraft though. But, still, shouldn't I have asked a question about it now and then? It was her hobby, hell most of the time it was her livelihood. Maybe I wasn't as good a friend as I'd thought I was.

My thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of a void. I hadn't been looking for it, and I was surprised I had noticed it at all. Thinking it was just Eric, I waited for him to come up where I could see him. I was glad I wasn't in the sweats I had planned on wearing. Eric was getting sweeter and sweeter here lately, so I wanted to make some concessions as well. One of them was trying to look nice when he was around. Tonight I was wearing a long tie-skirt, with a tank top. Nothing too nice, I was barefoot after all, I didn't want him to ever think I'd dressed nice for him! But a casual that was a little nicer than usual.

After a couple minutes the void hadn't come any closer, so I stretched my mind out, and leapt up in shock. There were at least six voids out there. I grabbed my book and tea, and made my way into my house as quickly as I could without looking suspicious. After closing and locking the door, I checked every other door and window in the house. Seeing they were taken care of, I sat on my bed, pushed against the headboard as far as I could, hoping no one could see me from outside. Then, I did the only thing I could think of, I called Eric.


	12. Chapter 12

_Author's Note: Wow, I'm getting slower and slower with these updates! As always, I have excuses! Skin Trade, Book 17 of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series, by Laurell K. Hamilton was realeased on June 2nd, I had nearly forgotten about it - I mean the last few hadn't really been my tastes, but I believe this book was as good as the earlier ones, if you're unsure but would like to check it out, please let me know and I'll help you get it (you can download them cheap from some sites!). Excuse #2, My laptop no longer fits on my lap, lol I'm in the third trimester now, and typing is getting awkward! Sometimes, I'll angle the computer where it's sitting on my tummy, and the baby tries to kick it off! Typing at a desk bites! But I'm still getting it written. AND I've found out that I have gestational diabetes. Do you know how bad that sucks? I have to go meet with a dietition about it. There goes my Mt. Dew, my 4 pasta nights per week (I'm Italian baby, we love our pastas!), my addiction to homemade bread will have to end. And I was only forty points too high... Oh well. Stay tuned for a favor in the author's note at the bottom!_

* * *

**Chapter 12**

I immediately felt unsure when Eric answered his phone. I knew exactly how he would take my calling him in this circumstance. He would think I was a weak little human calling on the big badass vampire to save me from the bad men. How could I be a strong independent woman when I was calling on him to save me all the time? The answer was simple, I couldn't. Like Tara said, I needed to be able to save myself. The next time Niall came to visit, I would have my powers unbound. I made the decision just like that, in that split second, while Eric was still saying 'hello'.

I decided with the same speed to be honest with Eric. I would finally tell him what all the secrecy was about. I wouldn't hide from this. There were vampires in my woods, and Eric could get hurt coming to 'save' me, or worse get dead. How could I ask that of him when I wouldn't even tell him I was building a school for supernatural children?

"Eric, I need to talk to you. Do you think you could drop by tonight? After _Fangtasia _closes, of course."

"Is something wrong?" There was that tone. He knew he had me.

"No, have you sent some vamps here by chance?" I thought nonchalance would be the best way; I didn't want him to see me as a damsel in distress.

"I did not." His voice was sharp, "are you saying there are vampires in your home?"

"No, they're in my woods, though. I thought they could be checking on me. Or maybe I was in some sort of danger and no one though it important to tell me, so I was just sent body guards or something."

"You're bullshitting me, Sookie. I can hear it in your voice. You're scared." Why did he have to say that? I hadn't been scared, the fear had gone away while he was answering the phone, but now, I was scared again.

"I just don't know why there are six vampires in my woods right now. I'm not scared. Just curious." I had to remind myself that they were vampires and couldn't come in without permission. The fear again began to drain. They couldn't hurt me unless I let them. And I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I sure wasn't the dullest either. There was no way I was _letting _anyone hurt me. Nope, those vamps would stay on the other side of the door no matter what.

"I'll be there shortly. Do. Not. Open. Your. Door. To. Anyone. Other. Than. Me." He said each word precisely and distinctly, as though spitting them out.

"I'm not _stupid_ Eric, of course I won't let strange vampires in my house." He snorted and the line went quiet. I was offended by that snort. It was a snort saying I _was_ stupid enough to let a strange vampire in my house. I would never do that! Except that one time, with Mickey, but I was sure smart enough to get myself out of it! All Eric did was lay on the floor bleeding, when I took the beating and got the vampire away from us. Maybe I'll remind him of that some time, how I was the one to save the day on more than one occasion. Obviously I wasn't too stupid to save his ass!

My annoyance at Eric immediately took away my residual fear. I huffed and puffed around my house for a few minutes, until I again felt the voids. There were more voids now. Not just six, ten at least. My fear multiplied as the vampires did.

But the vamps weren't what spiked the fear to terror.

The new vamps had a human with them. A human whose mind was familiar to me. A mind that had occupied a lot of my thoughts lately. A mind that belonged to my only human kin.

The vampires had Hunter. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't think. I was shaking and silently praying to God to get Hunter and me out of this alive. I didn't know what the vamps wanted, I couldn't read _their_ minds, but I knew if they had a hostage in the form of my five year old cousin, they couldn't be here for anything good.

_Hunter, can you hear me?_

_Aunt Sookie? Am I at your house?_

_You're close. Who brought you here?_

_Friends of my mommie's. They said that you wanted to see me, that someone named Eric asked them to come and get me. _My heart stopped. Eric? My Eric? No. They'd lied to Hunter, Eric would never betray me. He wouldn't want an innocent little boy hurt. And for what purpose? No, Hunter had been told a very big lie. And probably told so that I would 'hear' it straight from his mind. The vamps were trying to turn me against Eric. _Wow, _I thought, _I'm smarter than I give myself credit for!_

_Hunter, who are the men that picked you up?_

_I don't know. Their heads are quiet._

_Can you show me what they look like? _He immediately complied, and I knew my worst fears were confirmed. Felipe de Castro was holding Hunter in his arms. They weren't walking right now. In fact it seemed as though they were all standing around talking. I didn't think vampires even _did_ that. Especially with a little boy nearby to witness.

_Aunt Sookie, are they bad men? _Shit! He'd heard my thoughts, even though I wasn't aiming them at him. It's hard to only let another telepath hear exactly what you want them to, and nothing else. Right then, Hunter was talking bravely to me. But my fear had him quivering. I would need to tone that down.

_Don't be scared, Hunter. I won't let them hurt you. He'll bring you to my house in a minute. I can't come out right now. But I will get you when they bring you here, okay?_ I worked hard at controlling the tone of my thoughts. And I think I succeeded in radiating nothing but calm.

_Mr. Marcus said my mommy was one of them._

_Who is Mr. Marcus? _Again he showed me a picture, the man was tall and well built, long black hair, pale as all vampires are. He looked like every stereotype you've ever seen of a vampire.

_I don't know him, honey. Your mommy isn't one of them anymore._

_Is that why she left me? Cause she was one of them? _How did I tell him his mother was dead? I assumed Remy had let him know that long ago. I wanted to be honest with him. But I didn't know how. I hadn't had much experience with kids, aside from Arlene's kids, I wasn't sure quite how to talk to this little boy.

_Do remember your mom?_

_No, Daddy said I was too little when she left._

_She wouldn't have left you on purpose. She had to stay away for awhile. She would have come back, though. She wouldn't have left you if she could have helped it. _I didn't know what Hadley would have done, but I know I could never have left my child unless I had been forced. Or turned into a vampire and at risk of draining my own child. I liked to think that that was the only reason Hadley had done it. She couldn't have really meant to leave her child. She couldn't have been that bad of a person.

_It's okay, Aunt Sookie. I think we're coming to your house now._

Oh shit! Eric wasn't here yet, and I didn't have a plan of any sort. What could I do to save Hunter and myself? I wished I could mumble a few words out of that book and make them all burst into flames. Or something less drastic. Maybe I could freeze time? I ran to the kitchen, where I'd set down the book. I looked up the spell and concentrated as hard as I could and recited the words.

Nothing.

_Aunt Sookie are you doing magic? _Huh? How'd he know about magic?

_I'm trying, but it doesn't seem to be working Hunter._

_Can I try?_

_Sure. I filled my mind with the words over and over. _Hunter recited them to himself until he'd memorized it. Then said it out loud.

Nothing.

I tried not to be disappointed. After all I was a full-grown woman and it hadn't worked. Why would I expect it to work for him? I felt Hunter's disappointment, too.

_Sweetie, don't feel bad. It didn't work for me either._

_But the other man that visited, he said I could do magic._

_What other man, honey? _When I saw who he was talking about, I nearly got sick. Dermot had gotten to Hunter, too. Just like Jason, he hadn't hurt him. Why had he wanted to kill me then? He left everyone else alive.

_We're both supposed to have magic, I bet we just have to practice, we'll get it right one day._

_Everyone stopped again. They said there's another vampire coming._

Dear God, how many vamps did they need?

_As soon as you see him, show me, okay? _

_He's here. _He showed me a man with long blonde hair, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, flying overhead. I would recognize that man, er vamp, anywhere. It was Eric. He was flying to me, and he was almost here.

I had the door opened before Eric could knock. I jumped into his arms as fast as my body would go.

"Oh Eric! They have Hunter! We have to help him."

"Your cousin is here?" He seemed stunned. Any other time it would have been funny to see a vampire stunned, but this was a serious situation. "This isn't good." He seemed to be saying that to himself.

"What's going on Eric? How do they even know about Hunter?"

"Hadley was a vampire, Sookie, I'm sure a lot of vamps knew about him." He began to pace. His reaction wasn't what I expected. What I expected, I didn't know, but definitely not this. I thought he'd be calling in the troops, maybe, or negotiating, doing _something_ anyway.

"Eric, why would they have done this now? You don't think they know about his ability do you?"

"We must talk." He wasn't looking at me. Something was wrong. I felt it down to my toes. Whatever he had to say, I did not want to hear it. Though, if it would save Hunter I would listen.

"Talk." I knew he wanted me to sit, but I couldn't. My nerves were on edge, and I was afraid to hear what he had to say.

"After you turned down Felipe's offer, he demanded me to release you to him. He's my king, I can't outright tell him no." I was waiting for the big bad.

"You said we were married and that no other vampire could take me unless they killed you."

"That's true. He was giving me a chance to save my own life."

"So, if you don't give me to him, he'll kill you?"

"Yes. And he will make you vampire taking the bond out of the equation, we would still be married, but if I willingly give you away while you're human, the marriage is void."

"You liar! You said there was no way I could get out of this!"

"I did not lie." he spat. "There is no way for _you_ to get out of this. I have to end it. And I will not do that."

"You're keeping me, even though you could let me go? And when I asked you didn't even _tell _me about it?"

"You keep your secrets, and I shall keep mine." His voice was low, but I could hear the anger. The only thing that kept me from lashing out, was hearing Hunter again.

_Aunt Sookie, I can see your house._

_I'll come out for you in a minute, Hunter._ I turned back to Eric.

"What does Hunter have to do with this?" His face turned from stone to agony in a second.

"He would have taken you from me! He would have taken you from your life and everything you know!" It took me only a second to understand what he was saying.

"You traded my _five year old cousin _to a vampire to keep me?" I kept my voice as calm as I could manage, but it wasn't calm at all.

"He would have killed me, and taken you! What would you have had me do?"

"How _could _you?" All semblance of calm was gone. "He's a little boy!" I screamed, "He's only a child! He's a human being! Where are your morals? I don't even know you! The Eric I know would _not _do something so despicable!" I ran out of words. I didn't know any harsh enough for what I wanted to say to him.

"It was you _and _me, or a child that you barely know, that I don't know at all. Of course I chose him!"

"He is my family. I love him no matter how little I know him." I was still screaming.

"You're behaving like a child! I did what I had to do to save you! I've been on this earth well over a thousand years. Do you think I survived by putting humans first?" My anger, no, blind rage was beyond anything I'd ever felt before. Hate filled my entire body.

"You're a selfish bastard! How will those vampires keep their fangs to themselves with a part fairy/part witch child nearby? How long do you think it will be before they can't control themselves and kill him?" My voice was pure venom, filled with a poison I didn't know could live inside my body.

"They will not hurt him. They will build up a tolerance. As long as he doesn't bleed no one ever need to know!" Once again I was in his head. Further than I'd ever been before, and it was ugly. He didn't care what happened to Hunter. He'd told Felipe himself that Hunter was part fae. He didn't care if they drained him. All he cared was that I was by his side. I would have been flattered had it been because of love, and if my cousin wouldn't suffer for it. But it was not about love. It was about possession, obsession, assets and control. And he could care less for any human who got in his way.

"You are dead to me Eric Northman." My voice had an odd ring to it. It was louder than I meant it to be, and it echoed through my home. I didn't have time to worry about it now though. I turned to walk out the door. I was going to face the men holding Hunter. I would do whatever it took to undo this. Before I made it two steps Eric was in front of me.

"You will not disobey me. You are not going out that door." He was adamant in his mind, I was suddenly able to read him like an open book. He would knock me out if that's what it took.

"Let me go, or I will invite in every vampire out there." He looked as though I had struck him, he grabbed me roughly, putting his hand over my mouth so I couldn't invite the vamps inside.

"You will not put yourself _or_ me in harms way. The _boy_ is dead to you now. I'm right here. Your witch words have not effect on the undead." I bit his hand. He jerked away in surprise.

"You will _never _lay another hand on me! I'll give _myself _to de Castro before I let you own me." He reached for me again, but jerked away immediately when my entire body was engulfed in flames.

* * *

_Author's Note #2: I've had this GREAT idea for a story, and I just can't write it. For many reasons! It's sort of an Anita Blake/Sookie Stackhouse crossover. BUT only Anita and Jean-Claude would be involved. I have few actual ideas for it, but here's the bit of plot I've come up with: For some reason Eric and Jean-Claude have business, Jean Claude is the 'Master of the City' of St. Louis, so perhaps we make it like Eric being Sheriff is the same thing? Eric and Sookie are introduced to Anita and the women both notice something off about the other. Long story short Sookie and Eric befriend Anita and Jean-Claude (could have some hot ardeur action here - OR perhaps Sookie is immune to it like all other vamp powers - which could help out Anita somehow), and Jean-Claude teaches Eric how to make Sookie his human servant, and Sookie will live a long and prosperous life. If someone REALLY like the Anita Blake books, perhaps they could throw in some drama or whatever with Marmee Noir (if you exclude book 17) or even Belle Morte, I've thought a million ways on this. Anyway, if someone loves both series' as much as me, and can write halfway decent, and is interested in writing this particular story, please PM me to let me know! I think this would make a wonderful story, and I'll help in any way I can! I'm even willing to write a little, be an unofficial beta, etc. I just REALLY want someone to write this story! THANKS!_


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N: This is an in-between chapter. I felt there were a few things that needed cleared before Sookie went to greet the vamps. Is it important to the story? Probably not. However there were a few things that I left hanging from get-go for a later reveal, and it felt like the right time to reveal some of them. I apologize for building up the suspense and not delivering. Also, I felt that Sookie deserved a chapter to figure out what was going on with her. And remember her emotions aren't right in this chapter - she's sort of in shock. _

_I remembered something a professor in college said to me while I was writing this chapter. She said I was an excellent conversationalist, a good writer, but only a decent story-teller. Perhaps that is why there are so many conversations and less action in my stories. So remember that as you read! Oh well, I hope you enjoy!_

_Sorry for the long author's note, but I needed to say something else! I'm sorry to all you Eric lover's out there hating how I've portrayed Eric in my story. I have made him how I see him. Trading Hunter's life for his and Sookie's, well, I think he WOULD do that. I know quite a few people had issues with it, however he was doing what he could to save himself and Sookie. Remember also that in the time he was raised children weren't what they are now. They were married and having children at puberty. We cherish children now, in the old days they were an extra hand around the house, help in farming, at Hunter's age they were hunting for their dinner with their brothers and fathers. Times are different, and what experience does Eric have with children to know that? _

* * *

**Chapter 13**

There was no pain. There wasn't even any heat. I could see flames flying into the air from every millimeter of skin on my body, coming up through by clothes, though they didn't burn. But I felt like I was standing in an air conditioned room. It didn't take a genius to figure this one out.

I smiled at Eric, the cruelest smile that had ever been on my face.

"Erik of the Northmen, I no longer belong to you." The words came as though I'd practiced them a hundred times; they were as natural to me as breathing. "I divorce you. I love you not. I will see you no more. I make love to you no more. I release you from our bond. I release you from your duty to me. I take away all protection afforded me on your behalf. I divorce you, Erik the Northman, I divorce you." I didn't know where the words came from, I heard them clearly before I spoke them, and I spoke them as solemnly as the occasion called for.

Eric was on his knees in front of me, red trailing from his eyes. I felt no pity. I was truly hardened against him at this moment. I could feel his suffering – there was something broken in him, but that had nothing to do with me. I listened to his silent wailing, silent to all but me. He thought in a language I didn't understand, but those thoughts came with images I did.

I felt no love in his mind. I felt obsession. I felt possession. He thought of me more than he thought of the fangbangers he'd been with just this night, but he thought of thousands of women throwing themselves at him. I was the only challenge he'd had in a thousand years. I felt disgusted by thoughts of orgies, bloodbaths, and worst, the murdered children. He'd been a part of it all. His days as a Viking were clear to me. I'd hated Bill for his 'rape' of me, but seeing what Eric had done, as a human no less, made Bill look like the angel his statue portrayed. I had to pull myself out of his mind. I couldn't take anymore. This wasn't the first child he'd endangered. If I could help it, it would be his last.

My ears perked up like a pup, when I heard the voice again. _Sookie, I will not hurt you. I'm here to help. _I prodded that mind, who did that voice belong to?

_I'm not a telepath like you, you'll need to project your thoughts to ask me questions._

_Who are you?_

_I'm Dermot, your true Grandfather._

_You wanted to kill me. _I realized the thought felt wrong. I knew it was a lie as I said it.

_I never wanted to kill you. Breandan wanted to use you against Father, and to keep me bound to him. _Just as I knew what I had thought was a lie, I knew what he said was the truth. I could read him nearly as easily as a human. I felt his grief, his outright turmoil at what had been done to me. He had been here to protect me, to stand against Breandan finally, and to maybe even renew a relationship with his father.

Thoughts swirled around me, and I knew it was coming from the vampires outside. It took nothing to turn my gift toward them, and know they weren't all in on the plan.

_She will trade herself for the boy. I will have her soon._

_Northman will make her see sense, we can take the boy and go._

_I wonder if Felipe will share her once he has her?_

_The boys blood will be sweet. I'll have it as soon as Felipe's back is turned._

And on and on it went. Some sick twisted vamps wanted Hunter, some wanted me. Some of them wanted my blood. Even more of them just wanted to get out of here and get back home. It was easy to separate them in my mind. Within seconds I knew the names of Felipe's supporters, admirers, traitors, and those who were basically okay and didn't know why they were here. I turned my attention back to Dermot.

_What have you done to me? How can I read your mind and the minds of the vampires? _I knew the answer of course, but I wanted to hear it with my own ears, well mind.

_I've unbound your abilities. You and I are bound by blood, in a Fae line that means we can feel each other, and find each other at any time. You no longer have magic protecting your property, so you are open to me again. I could feel your decision to become unbound, so I gave you what you wanted. You wanted released from the monster in your home, so I gave you the words._

_You've freed me?_

_Yes, and now we must free Hunter, my great-grandson. I will not have him enslaved to vampires._

_Before we can save Hunter, I need to know how to put the fire out._

_Fire?_

_Yes, I'm on fire._

_That is not Fae magic. We're not of fire. It must be witch magic. I do not know how to help you. How did you catch fire?_

_Eric grabbed me, I told him he would never touch me again, and I burst into flames._

_Does it hurt?_

_No, actually it feels quite cool._

_Interesting. It seems you're a defensive witch. I would have thought psychic. No matter. The fire is your defense against a vampire attack. You have to concentrate on not defending yourself against a vampire, it will go away._

_That seems too simple._

_A natural witch doesn't always need words. Words are only what forces you to concentrate on your objective. If it helps, make the words up. _I could feel his smile. I could feel his kindness. What would make someone whose spirit seemed so genuine go to war against his own father?

_Breandan forced me. I wouldn't like to go into details. Look into my mind if you must. But I think it's better left for another time. There are things to do. _His thoughts had gotten a hard-edge to them. His impatience was showing through. And I felt embarrassed to have let him hear those thoughts.

_Sorry, _I thought at him, _I didn't know I was still projecting. It was just a passing thought._

_No matter, are you still on fire? _I looked down, and indeed I was on fire. It felt pretty good, I was astonished that I could forget that I had flames shooting off of my body. It was like I'd turned into a giant fire ball. A walking sun. I could walk around like this all the time. I looked at Eric, still kneeling on the floor. It felt as though a lifetime had passed, but it had been only minutes.

_Hunter, what's going on out there?_

_We're standing here. No one's talking. But they said a tiger was coming. Is there really a tiger? Will it eat us?_

Oh no, they were going to use Quinn against me again. I felt my heart drop. Quinn. I felt for so long that I might have made a mistake with him. I still wasn't sure if I made the right decision. The last time I had seen him, my head was so confused that I could only parrot Eric. I could only hope that his punishment for sneaking in to see me wasn't enough to make him hurt me, or worse, Hunter.

_No Sweetie, I don't think the tiger is coming to hurt us. Me and him are kind of friends._

_Wow, Aunt Sookie, you're friends with a tiger? _He thought it was a real tiger.

_He's a shapeshifter. Like the wolves that were on TV. He's a man sometimes, but can turn in to a tiger._

_Wow. _He was beyond speechless. He was thoughtless. I wanted to laugh. But this wasn't the right time for that. I tuned Hunter back out. What was I supposed to do? I was having trouble concentrating. It felt like my mind had been amped up. I was thinking faster than I'd thought was possible. Eric's memories were pounding into my head. The thoughts of the vamps, Hunter, Dermot, everyone's thoughts were coming in loud and clear, I could easily hear everything, but I still had time to work on what to do. It was confusing.

Oh! The fire, I realized looking down at myself. I concentrated as hard as I could, closing my eyes and trying to feel safe and secure, as though no one could hurt me. In a matter of seconds my skin was back to it's tan color. I was amazed that my clothes weren't singed, there wasn't even a mark on the floor or ceiling. My skin felt normal, though I felt anything but. Why didn't I have a headache? The minds were so loud.

Okay, Sookie, time to sort this out. I straightened my back, held my head up high, and walked toward the door. But in all this, I'd forgotten one thing, Eric.

"No, Sookie. I won't let you hurt yourself." I laughed at him.

"You really think you can stop me? That is my cousin, that's my family out there! I won't stand by and let them take him."

"You owe me this Sookie." My mouth dropped open.

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"This school of yours, these massive remodels, your car, your computer, everything you have is because of me. And all I ask in return is that you not walk out that door." I saw it all. He didn't even have to say it, but I couldn't stop myself.

"Bill left it to me. It was Bill's money." It was his turn to laugh.

"Do you think if he had that kind of money he would have been living in that run-down hovel, driving that piece of shit car?"

"Yes, I believed it." I felt tricked, trapped, stunned. "You killed Bill." He looked at me in derision.

"No, Bill was dying and agreed to take the money and leave it to you when he died." He was lying. He didn't know I could read his mind. The smaller account, which still had held a huge amount of money, was Bill's, the homes and property were Bill's. The larger account belonged to Eric. I saw that it was merely a fraction of what he had. The largest account though, belonged to Niall. And it again was only a fraction of Niall's wealth. Eric and Niall had met with Cataliades together, with Bill at his house. There was billions of dollars out there, Niall wanted to give it to me, but listened to Eric when he said there was no way I would take the money from him. He reluctantly agreed to what Eric said, trusting that Eric knew me best. I didn't know who had control of Niall's money that was left on earth. I just had to hope it wasn't Eric.

"You could have saved Bill. He would have lived if he'd had the blood of a stronger vampire. He wasn't given any vampire blood, and on your orders. You gave him True Blood and bags of human blood. Supernatural blood would be all that would have healed him. He needed to be drained and have new blood put in his body. You wouldn't allow it. He would have recovered in around ten years if most of his blood came from vamps." I said all this without emotion. Stated it as I was reading it from his mind.

"Since when can you read my mind?" His face was contorted with anger, but I felt his fear.

"We're divorced. I no longer owe you explanations." With his vampire speed, he was back in front of me before I could blink.

"Oh yes, this is an explanation you do owe me. How long?"

"What was it you said? You keep your secrets and I'll keep mine." He reached for me, then thought better of it. Vampires go up in flames fairly quickly.

"I didn't kill Bill. I let him die! He went against Felipe's orders and saved you. He would have been killed anyway! And it would have been slow and painful. I _helped_ him by letting him go in a way he could be proud! He has died from battle now. Now torture from his king.

"You sent him to me! Anything he did was under your orders!" I couldn't believe it. He truly believed he was not at fault for Bill's final death. He didn't even shutter while remembering Bill shriveling away into nothing. The thought that sent me over the edge was that he was no loss to the world. "It was a loss for me." I said quietly. The tears didn't come, I was truly over his death but I knew I would remember him forever as a hero.

"You did it again! You're reading my mind! This is not a joke. This is serious. They will kill you if you read their minds." His eyes widened and I heard the revelation before he said it. "The boy can read vamps can't he?"

"No." I said simply.

"I'll give you all of Niall's money if that's what it will take to keep you in this house."

"I won't give away a child for money, you should know me better than that! Besides, you don't even know where Niall's money is. Don't lie to a telepath, Eric. You should have figured that out by now. Get out of my way. I'm walking out that door."

"You'll just be his blood whore! The boy will have an easier time of it than you."

"You sicko! There are at least three vamps out there right now waiting for Felipe to turn his back so they can have their way with Hunter! I would rather be Felipe's whore for a million years than let them hurt him!" I saw this was no surprise to Eric. He hadn't known it for sure, but had assumed it. Vampires like the blood of children. I put aside my revulsion. I didn't have time to think about this now. I could only hope I would be alive to figure it out later.

"If you go out that door, you no longer have my protection. I will give you to Felipe." I heard the coldness, yet knew he felt as though I'd betrayed him. I could only smile as I again walked toward the door. Toward Hunter, toward the vampires that wanted me for sex, for blood, and for my talent. I very well could be walking toward my death.

But I walked calmly. I walked with a purpose. I walked like I had a guardian angel with me. I walked as though no one could hurt me. And finally I walked away from the man who thought he loved me, but who didn't have it in him to love anyone.

I put my hand on the doorknob, took a deep breath and flung open the door.

_I'm ready, Grandfather. Hunter, I love you. Be brave._


	14. Chapter 14

_Author's Note: I hope you enjoy this chapter! Thanks to APearle for helping me clarify some things in this chapter! If you haven't read her story 'Revealed' you really should! It's definately one of my favorite fics on here! She's on my favs lists on my profile if you'd like to find her!_

_Thanks again for all the reviews, even got a few more fav adds for the last chapter, even two or three more alerts! I'm always excited to get those Fanfiction Alerts in my inbox! Thanks for reading!_

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**Chapter 14**

It was bright outside from the bulbs of the security lights. I could clearly make out a line of vampires standing about twenty yards from the front porch. There were eleven of them. One was a woman, the rest men. Felipe de Castro stood slightly in front of the rest, with Hunter in his arms. Hunter didn't look scared and was seemingly comfortable. I knew that was a lie because his mind was absolutely terrified.

"Hunter come here, Sweetie." I called out to him. I knew Felipe wouldn't let him go. But I thought I'd try to be civil first.

"Ah, Ms. Stackhouse, I have the boy, he'll not be going anywhere." Said Felipe de Castro.

"What are you doing with this little boy?" I asked. I thought it best to portray ignorance. After all, the dumb blond routine had worked before.

"Don't play coy. I'm sure Northman has explained it to you by now. He made the decision to give me the boy for your freedom, and his own life. And now I've come to you for you decide which of you will stay with Northman and which of you will come to me."

"You know it doesn't work that way, de Castro." Eric said from behind me. "She is my human, all decision concerning her are mine to make." I looked at him a moment and back at Felipe.

"I am no longer Eric's human. We've been divorced."

"We are not divorced, Sookie! Witch words have no effect on the undead, as I've told you."

"Ah, so you were married unwillingly." Felipe smiled. "It is as I suspected." He glanced around to his entourage nodding his head as though I had proven his point. I knew that couldn't be good, but I had no idea what it meant. He was radiating confidence, his only clear thought being how much he wanted me for his own. "Unfortunately there is still the blood bond to consider." He put a finger to his lips as though to chew on a nail. I knew he was pretending to think on it, but I clearly saw that killing Eric was the only option he was thinking on.

"There is no longer a bond. It doesn't need to be considered." I stated firmly.

"No bond? That's preposterous! There is no way to break a blood bond." Felipe thought I was lying. And looked at Eric for the truth.

"Of course we're still bound. We all know that is something that's only broken with death."

"That's only if you've bound yourself to a human, Eric, as you well know." I spat. "I'm am not human."Felipe laughed again.

"Oh this is getting better and better, Ms. Stackhouse, if not human what are you? That teensy little bit of fae doesn't count of course." Outward he was still radiating a calm confidence, but inside he was starting to worry.

"That's my secret Castro. Give me the boy, let me take him to his father and I'll come with you willingly."

"No, Sookie!" Eric yelled again. I felt him trying to influence me. He was trying glamour again.

"Eric, you know I can't be glamoured. Stop trying." I stepped off the porch finally. Determined to save Hunter, no matter the cost to myself.

"She can't be glamoured? Is it true?" Felipe asked Eric in astonishment. I thought everyone knew.

"She can be glamoured, when she isn't feeling so stubborn." Eric leaned against the porch railing. "You know you can't take her, whether it's her decision or not. She is mine."

During their little talk I had made my way to the line of vamps. They were all shifting uncomfortably. What did they think? The weak little human had a stake up her sleeve? I reached out for Hunter when I was close enough. But Castro wasn't letting go.

"Give me the boy, Castro. I said I would go with you. That's what you wanted."

"No, no no, Ms. Stackhouse. The boy belongs to Eric now. And he will have to bond with the boy, and I will bond with you before we leave."

"That was not part of the deal Castro!"

"Not at the start, but it is now."He reached for me.

"Don't you lay a finger on me." I backed away a step. He laughed again, this time uproariously, as though I had just said the funniest thing he'd heard in his life time. He was stopped from responding by the arrival of a tiger.

"Ah, he is here." Felipe practically sang. Quinn came running around the vamps in a full shift. I still couldn't read him clearly though. I knew it was Quinn because of the signature, but that was all that was familiar. I could read his emotions but not his thoughts. He was angry, that took over most other emotions in his tiger body. I just didn't know who the anger was aimed at. Surely he would hurt a child, though.

"Hello Quinn, I'm glad to see you're unhurt." He nodded his large head at me. "Castro, what is he doing here? I thought he was banned from this area?"

"He is banned. However, there are exceptions. In fact, as punishment for his actions, he's here help secure you." He reached out the hand not holding Hunter, and patted Quinn's head. Quinn snarled. "If you won't trade for yourself, perhaps you will for Quinn? Or your brother, or your shifter boss? They're all surrounded by my vampires right now. And if you don't come with me, they all die."

"I've already agreed to come with you! When Hunter goes back to his father, I'll go back with you."

"As I've said that is no longer agreeable. I must bond with you. You're the great-grand daughter of the prince of the fae. Your powers will be great."

"I'll do it. Give me my cousin." While this was going on, I felt fae in the woods. What on Earth?

_Dermot? What's going on?_

_Keep them occupied a bit longer. It seems father has been keeping an eye on you as well. There are six other fae, all of our bloodline. I believe Father will be with you soon. The vampires will release you and Hunter or I think we will go to war._

_Niall is here?_ I felt my heart swell. He said he couldn't watch me from where he was, but here he was, coming for me when I was in danger, just like Claudine. I smiled at the thought. Oops, wrong reaction. Felipe jerked Hunter back again.

"What have you planned?"

"Nothing, give me Hunter, I want to see him before I go all the way to Vegas. Eric will make sure he's returned to his father." Quick as a wink Hunter jumped toward me, causing Felipe to loosen his grasp. I easily caught him, having heard his plan to jump a moment before he did. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight to me. I felt something inside me relax holding my cousin. He was thinking at me a mile a minute, to fast for me to comprehend.

The vampires had started to circle us, as though Hunter and I were a bright flame and the vamps were moths.

"What are you doing? I promised to go with you!" I noticed Eric begin to creep down the porch steps. _What the…?_ There thoughts had turned basic: hunger, blood lust, sex. I didn't understand what was going on. But I began to turn fearful again.

_Dermot! They've surrounded us. And they're hungry. I don't know what to do._

All Dermot was thinking was getting here as quickly as possible. I recognized Niall, he was slightly shielded from me, but his thoughts were on saving Hunter and myself. There were more out there, men and women, even Claude was running to my rescue. Though I knew they would be too late, all I could do was wait and hope and pray.

_Goddess of night and god of day, hear my words as I pray. By the powers that be, time stop for me. Stars of the dark, moon of night, hear my words, feel my plight._

Hunter was muttering the spell to stop time. That was perfect. He was one smart little boy. I joined him and our voices rang out, louder and louder as we went. Finally on the third time through, something happened.

We were cowering in the middle of the circle of vamps who were still moving toward us, but they were now in slow motion. Well, that was better than nothing. I was surprised that even that much had worked! Now what? Once again Hunter was taking the lead, he jumped down from my arms and ran straight toward the vamps.

"Hunter, no!" I ran after him. He ducked between the legs of a tall vamp and was out of the circle.

"C'mon Aunt Sookie! Crawl through, and fast! They're not stopped, just slow!" With his child's mind he'd had no doubt of the spell and his mind was handling this a lot better than mine. I took Hunter's advice, and dropped to my knees right in front of Eric. _How ironic, _I thought, _this is how he'd like me to be all the time._ I crawled through as fast as I could. And we ran to the porch.

I used the moment of quiet to stretch out my mind. Quinn was moving in slow motion, too. He was turning to us, a snarl on his face. The vamps were all slowly moving toward us.

The fairies were making their way to us quickly. Our spell seemed not to work on them. But it still seemed to be taking too long for them to get there. I saw a vamp lurch from the corner of my eye. Oh shit!

"In the house Hunter, hurry." I pushed him ahead of me and raced right behind him. The vamps couldn't come in without an invite. I peeked out my front window, Eric was closest to us.

"Eric, I rescind your invitation to my house!" I said hurriedly, they vamps were all moving slightly faster now. "Hunter, go up the stairs and into the attic. Hurry honey, go. They're coming out of it!" Hearing the urgency in my voice he raced up the stairs.

I frantically searched for something to use in defense. Anything that would give me a chance of surviving this. I grabbed the poker by the fireplace, shaking my head as I wondered why I never had stakes around when there were vamps around all the time.

I heard the door break in behind me. _What? _The front window came next. _They can't come in without an invitation, they can't come in without an invitation. _I said it over and over, trying to calm down. But something was wrong, a vampire named Robert was through the door and making his way toward me. I brandished the poker, but I knew it wouldn't do much good.

They were no longer in slow motion, they were all coming at me, and at full speed. I ran. I knew it was stupid, you can't outrun a vampire, but I was out the back door without being caught. I hoped they all chased me instead of Hunter. How did they get in? I hadn't invited in a single one of them!

I watched the ground as I ran, trying not to trip over the tree stumps, or the gardening tools I'd left out, and when I looked up, I was surrounded again. _Great! That did me a lot of good!_

"Great-Granddaughter!" Oh! Fairies not vamps! I flung myself into Niall's arms, being careful not to hit the sword in his right hand. All the fairies were armed for war. In fact, they were so armed it seemed extreme. Each had long silver swords, I shuddered when I saw silver teeth in some mouths like the ones that had poisoned Bill. They were wearing what looked like brown leather with knives, daggers and even throwing stars tucked into the myriad pockets.

"Niall! What are you doing here?"

"It seems I've left you in another mess, dear one. I couldn't leave you without some sort of protection."

"Where is Dermot?"

"Dermot is here?"

"Yes, he's here to help, Great-Grandfather. He unbound my abilities just in time. Hunter is hiding in the attic, I tried to lead the vampires away from him, but I ended up here."

"You're learning quickly, you teleported here. We'll talk later. You smell of fae." He turned toward the waiting fairies, and commanded, "Relax your shields." And suddenly I could smell it. I hadn't known that fairies even had a scent. It was indescribable, like the sweetest fruit, mixed with the softest flowers. It was heaven on earth.

_Dermot, where are you?_

_I'm coming. I didn't want them to attack thinking I was what caused you harm._

Dermot appeared before us. "Father," Dermot kneeled before Niall, an act I'd seen many times with the vamps, but never before with fairies. "I would like to help in this battle." Niall reached out to him slowly, distaste on his face first, but easing into awe.

"Of course. She is your Granddaughter."

"Not to break up the family reunion, but we need to make sure Hunter isn't getting eaten right now!"

"Have you unbound Hunter's abilities?"

"Of course not, he's a child. He'll make the decision when he is of age."

"Good. The vampires will come to us, Sookie, they will ignore Hunter for our scent."

"If I could teleport to you, why couldn't you teleport to me?"

"You have wards surrounding your house, only you can teleport in and out."

"Then how did the vamps get in?"

"The wards are only for fae." He said shortly.

I reached out again and counted twelve vampires coming our way. They were running fast, their minds crazed with bloodlust. And that is when I had a revelation. The vamps were _drunk _just off the scent of fae. I'd seen plenty of drunks fight working at _Merlotte's,_ they were usually easy to handle. They had a one track mind. No not drunks, these vamps were like 'V' addicts, looking for their next fix. They thought they were 'ten feet tall and silver proof'. They thought they were stronger than the fae because fae blood amped them up, like 'V' did for humans.

"Nearly here," I told everyone. From out of thin air, Niall had a second sword in his hands.

"This belonged to my mother, your Great-Great-Grandmother, she would be proud should you wield it." I reached for it. I was not only fighting for my life here, I was fighting for Hunter's, and I was fighting for the lives of my Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Claude and all this other family that were standing around that I had yet to meet. I was also fighting for Sam, Jason and everyone else I was close to, because Felipe hadn't lied when he said they were currently surrounded by vampires.

At my touch the sword glowed momentarily, I could make out thin etchings all throughout the length of the blade. I felt something similar to electricity shoot up my arm. The handle was made of wood, a three inch stake protruding, dangling from the hand grip were leather strips with multi-colored jewels that wrapped around my wrist as I gripped it. It was nearly longer than my arm, though it was so light and well balanced that I could swing it one handed. I glanced at Niall and saw tears in his eyes.

"A perfect fit," he said, "just as I'd thought."

There was no more time for talking, because twelve hungry vampires and a confused weretiger were upon us.

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_Author's Note #2: Next chapter: the battle finally begins!_


	15. Chapter 15

_Author's Note: Sorry for the delay!_ Real life gets in the way of internet time so often! Those I talk to regularly know I have a good reason, but I won't bore you with it now, I'm sure you want to know what happens next rather than listen to me gripe! Please enjoy! And thanks again for the reviews and adds. It means a lot! Also thanks to TeamJane and APearle for all their help with this story, especially this chapter - which was difficult for me to write. And to let you know, I did a horrible job following the advice given, so blame me and not them!

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Chapter 15

I held my Great-Great-Grandmother's Sword as though I knew what to do with it. It was a one-handed sword, even with the great length.

Eric was the oldest vampire in this group, probably the fastest runner, and almost certainly the strongest; so of course he was the first to reach us.

"Please don't kill Eric!" I shouted. I caught a look of shock before everyone began to swing their swords. We were outnumbered twelve to seven. Eight if you counted me, though what help could I be? And if Quinn was on the side of the vamps, then we were outnumbered thirteen to seven.

Eric attacked. I saw him run straight at my Great-Grandfather, and I remembered him saying to me once that if there was a war he would kill Niall first. Eric was bare handed, and even in his blood-inebriated state he was very good at ducking Niall's sword. I watched Niall, he never tried for a kill shot. He was trying to keep him alive – for me, though it could cost him his life.

I knew Eric had come out of his fae induced blood lust at other times, and I ran to him, ducking swords, claws, fists and fangs. On my way though, Niall finally gave up the sword and attacked hand to hand. I expected the collision to be loud, but instead it was nearly silent. Niall was a glowing sphere and there was suddenly nowhere for Eric to grip.

I turned away as the only woman in the group was the first to come at me. Her face was as ravenous at her thoughts. Her entire being focused on one thing: feeding. I held out my hand that wasn't holding the sword.

"Please stop!" I begged her. I was hoping she would see reason, snap out of it the way I'd seen Eric do. But before I could do more there was a loud roar, and a tiger was ripping through her throat. I watched. I couldn't turn my head away. The tiger's canines, at least two and a half inches long, cut easily through her skin. Blood spurted from her jugular a good two feet, covering me from head to foot. Her mouth opened in a scream of pain, but only a gurgling sound came out. Yet her focus was still on me.

Quinn's claws shredded her back and his teeth locked, finally knocking her to the ground. Once she was down, her hunger seemed worse, and she began to crawl toward me, but Quinn didn't let up. He gnawed until her head separated from her body. I still couldn't look away. It was as though I'd been paralyzed on the spot.

He pulled back, kicking her body with a front paw, and looked at me with sorry eyes. He stood and ran toward another fight, a fae names Sydney was clearly having trouble with Felipe. Before he made it there was suddenly a vampire on his back. The male, Marcus, was on him, fangs sliding into Quinn's shoulder, as his aim was off. Marcus wasn't thinking of the thirst at all anymore. He was thinking of Marsala, his child and his lover, whose life Quinn had just ended. He was filled with grief instead of hunger. But I couldn't just stand by while he killed Quinn. Quinn had very likely just saved my life.

Without thinking, my feet finally began to move, and I was running through the trees. Great-Great-Grandmother's sword knew what it was doing even if I didn't, because without a thought from me, I swung the sword. I felt a slight sickening jolt as the sharp edge hit flesh, then a shuddering crack as it broke through the bone. His long body fell from Quinn's back, though his fangs kept his head still attached. I grabbed the head by it's hair, hearing a suctioning sound as it detached. The head was still sucking blood, even though there wasn't a body for it to go to. I felt more vamps coming. I didn't recognize the brain pattern of course. There were quite a few though, nearly a dozen. We needed to get this under control!

I dropped the severed head, fell to my knees and lost my dinner. While trembling and heaving, I felt pressure on my back. I flipped to my feet , sword singing, faster than I could comprehend. I stopped just in time. Quinn had been trying to comfort me, and I had nearly taken his head. His golden eyes were confused.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. His big head nodded, and he charged off again.

I moved on to see if I could help others. The sword in my hand seemed to have a mind of it's own, and I was flinging it as though it were a part of me. I cut into a vamps stomach, hacked off an arm, cut off a leg. It wasn't enough for me suddenly to kill him quickly, I wanted to render him immobile before death.

It was a cruel side to me I hadn't witnessed before. In the heat of battle my humanity slipped away. I became a tool, an instrument of death. The thoughts of all the fighters, vampires and fae alike, were doing their best to overtake my mind. I let their cruelty, anger and hatred fill me. I gave myself over to instinct, and the vamp before me fell. I looked at him, unfeeling, I discovered his name was Joham, Felipe had gotten him to come take me, agreeing to giving him an evening with me. He would be allowed to do as he pleased as long as I could recover. He lay on the forest floor, his intestines hanging from his gash in his stomach. Blood pooled from where I'd cut off his left hand, his right arm and his entire left leg. The rage compounded when I saw all he'd wanted to do to me.

I took his head.

I didn't lament his death; I turned aside looking for someone else. But the woods were filled with bodies. Quickly decaying vamps surrounded me.

Niall and Eric were still fighting. I didn't want Eric killed, though at that very moment I might have been fine with him losing an arm or leg, he'd recover in a few years. The vindictiveness of my thoughts didn't shock me as much as it should have, though I didn't have time to think on it. I ran at Eric. After all _he_ was my problem, the rest were because of him.

_Niall! _I projected toward him, _block your scent! _He made no reply, though his actions were immediate. He didn't only block his scent, he blocked the scents of all of us. Still I ran. I felt like I would never make it to Eric, but finally I was there, I didn't swing the sword, I didn't catch on fire, I tackled him like a football player. To my surprise he went down.

He lay on the ground long after I jumped up, looking dazed. He no longer felt the blood lust, and was quickly coming back to normal.

"Can we tie him up or something so he can't hurt anyone else?" I asked Niall. He nodded and pulled chains of solid silver from around his body. Eric didn't fight as his skin started to smoke and Niall shackled his wrists and ankles. This happened in just a matter of seconds. I only felt a slight amount of pity for Eric's pain. His mind, however, was far away from the pain. He was feeling regret for his actions.

All around, the fighting had stopped. The few remaining vamps were coming out of their daze. They were confused as to why they were even fighting. I concentrated hard on the vamps and started speaking the 'time stopping' spell again. This time all the vamps were frozen into position.

I discovered who the new vampires were. Eric's group from _Fangtasia_, Pam had felt that Eric was in danger, and gathered all the vampires that were around. I felt bad that many of them had died. Felicia, Thalia, and other vamps I hadn't met before. This had not been their quarrel. But then again, who's was it?

"What's going on?" Claude yelled from a hundred feet away.

"I've stopped time for the vamps, it won't last long. Can we tie them all up or something?"

"Tie them up? Take their heads while they can't fight back!" a man named Astion, yelled.

"They only attacked because of the scent! They might be able to reason now that the scent is blocked." I explained. My mind seemed to be coming back to me. None of the fairies were happy with this. Yet at Niall's nod, they complied. In a very short time the remaining vamps were tied with silver, and we were left to stand around and wait until time unfroze. I wished the spell would have worked that well before!

"What do you want to do with them Great-Granddaughter?" I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea. Felipe was still alive, the only one I had really wished dead. I turned and counted the fae. There were six.

"Who did we lose?" I asked.

"Sydney. The vampire king killed her himself. He will die for this." Dermot said. I had seen supe justice before and though I didn't agree with it, it was the way things were done. In a moment of clarity I realized again that I was a supernatural being. Did I expect their ways to suddenly change just because I was now a part of them? No. I finally understood once and for all, I would have to be doing the changing. I had to fit in with them. Not them with me. I nodded my head, telling him I understood.

_Hunter, are you okay? _I hadn't forgotten him, but I just hadn't had time during the fight to check.

_I'm fine Aunt Sookie. There's a box of cars in here to play with. _I smiled, glad that he was left out of this, and that he wasn't so damaged that he couldn't enjoy himself.

_If anyone gets near you, you let me know, okay?_

_Yup. _And he was off in toyland.

"Hunter is fine and playing with toys," I told the group of fae.

"Would Northman be a fair King?" Niall asked.

"I'm sure he would." I was still angry, but I was trying to be fair. "He's known for treating his people well." I couldn't give him any praise though, I no longer had it in me.

"Would you be happy being a Queen?" Huh? What was he talking about? Then I plucked it from him mind. He didn't know Eric and I were no longer bonded, no longer married. I couldn't believe this had only been one night. It seemed as though too much had happened to take place in this short a time.

"Father, they are divorced, and it seems the bond has been broken as well." Dermot chimed in. The Fae surrounding us were shocked, but pleased.

"How?"

"Dermot unbound my powers and then gave me the words." He nodded to Dermot, feeling respect toward his son.

"But the bond?" Niall insisted. I looked at Dermot. I didn't have the answer to that one.

"She said it was gone. I am unsure how it ended. But she is clearly not feeling his pain. He was also unable to control her any longer. She released him from their bond, but she felt no different after, so I'm assuming it was gone before." No one knew what to make of that, hell neither did I. In fact my lack of curiosity on the subject made me suspicious.

"A fae had something to do with this." I stated matter-of-factly.

"Why do you say that?" Dermot asked, concern filling him.

"It's been gone for weeks. Not only have I not cared, but I haven't even thought about it much. The only supes that have been able to alter my mind that way have been fairies."

"But there are no fairies left on Earth." Dermot proclaimed.

"You've been here this whole time, and there are part – fae." I replied.

"Have you come across any part fae?" Niall asked.

"Just one. Father Nicholas, the new preacher at the Episcopal church." I thought about what I'd gotten from him. It hadn't been much, though that I could read him at all at that time had been a miracle. I put the thought away for later, because the vamps were beginning to come out of it.

"What do we do with them?" A woman asked, Caroline was her name, I found quickly. Everyone looked to me for an answer. I looked at Niall.

"We'll give them a choice. Felipe will pay for Sydney's death. The rest will have the opportunity to live if they vow to relinquish any claim on anyone of fae blood." Again, the fairies seemed unhappy but they agreed with their Prince.

"Do you really think that will work? I mean just because they say they won't do something, doesn't always mean they won't." I got reprimanding looks from everyone but Niall who was amused.

"The vow will be in blood and magically binding." Oh, now I got it.

I could smell smoke and hear the vamp minds again, so I knew they were no longer frozen. I could feel the anguish as the silver burnt through their skin. I'd once thought vampires were super intelligent. They could think of many things at once, and perhaps it was true. When hungry or in pain, however they had one track minds, their thoughts were simple, basic, less than animal.

"What do you think you're doing, Fae?" Felipe spit out. And I knew it was time to pay attention again.

"You've made a mistake Felipe de Castro. You have tried to harm my kin." Felipe looked at me then back to Niall.

"You would risk a war among our races over someone who is only an eighth fae? And a child who is only a sixteenth fae?"

"Your ignorance is your undoing." I felt Niall's anger swell as he lifted his sword and sliced it smoothly through Felipe's neck. For the fourth time that night, there was a severed head at my feet. As though I were outside of my own body, I kicked Felipe's head away from me as hard as I could. The vamps winced as the blood hit them, but the fairies had no reaction at all.

"The rest of you may live through this night. The choice is yours." Niall was pacing before the line of vamps. Waiting for one to speak. He didn't have to wait long. Craig, a young vampire, who had been turned less than fifty years ago, didn't have the patience the others had.

"Please release me!" Craig begged. "I didn't even know why I was here. Our king said we were to meet here, so I came. I was surprised that he was holding a boy!" I knew he lied.

_He didn't know anything about Hunter, but he knew he was here to take me, by force if necessary. He was a serial rapist as a human, he preferred busty blondes. He was promised a 'turn' with me. _I sent all that to Niall and the other fairies.

Claude was the surprise this time, he ran straight past Niall and punched Craig as hard as his strength would allow. I was stunned. But Niall didn't seem phased.

_You're kin, I might not be as selfless as Claudine, but I can't stand the thought of him doing that to you. _Claude sent unapologetically. I just shrugged. I'd seen so much violence in my life, especially in the last half hour, that punching someone seemed like nothing.

"You lie." Niall stated, "You had your own plans with my Great-Granddaughter. If we were to allow you to live would you find her and fulfill your sick plans?" Craig's thoughts were now flying. He had no obsession with me. But I couldn't stand the thought of him doing to other women what he'd wanted to do to me.

"Of course not. I swear I will never see her again!" He was telling the truth. But how could Niall let him go, knowing what he would do to other women? Claude was still in front of Craig. He looked at me, nodded his head, thinking that this needed done regardless. And his sword swung as fast as Niall had. Now there were five heads laying around on the forest floor.

_Where is the tiger?_ Someone finally thought. Where was Quinn? I stretched out with my mind but couldn't feel him anywhere near. I shook my head toward the fae, telling him I didn't know. I was only slightly worried. After all Quinn was formidable. He could take care of himself for the most part. It was unlikely that he wasn't fine. I didn't know why he'd run off though.

"Does anyone else care to speak?" before it was over, there were only four vampires left alive, including Eric. Niall had killed a pedophile, one who liked children's blood best, another who was promised a night with me, and another who was so loyal to his king that he said either to kill him or he would spend his undead life in the pursuit of my death.

I knew I would have nightmares from this. But right then, I didn't care. I felt justice had actually been done. What would human laws have accomplished here? Not a thing.

Eric was the first released from his chains. He knelt at Niall's feet, a move that shocked all of us.

"Niall, Prince of the Fae, I apologize for my actions against your kin."There were a few growls around. "I promise to do everything in my power to protect your descendents Sookie and Hunter. Their safety will become my top priority." Niall looked to the other fae.

"Is he being honest?" I delved as deeply into his mind as I could. He knew if he fought he would die. He also thought this was the way to win me back. I couldn't have that.

"I won't be with you Eric. You cannot force me to be by your side 'for my protection'. I am not your asset, and I will never be treated as such again."

"This is his true intention?" Niall asked me.

"Partly, though he plans to keep his vow."

"Northman, we've allowed you to live because Sookie wishes it. It would please me to end your undead life. But I will not let it be a reason for another estrangement in our family."Niall again looked around to us all, then back to Eric. "Sookie is to be treated as though she is full fae. We will assist your ascent to the throne, if Sookie and Hunter are left alone by your kind."

I could see that Eric wasn't willing to accept that. He had no interest in being king, but he had great interest in securing me to him.

"I'm sorry Niall, that is not something I can agree to. I like being a Sheriff, and have no need in increasing my position." What would Niall come up with to get his agreement?

_Niall, hurry we have to get to Jason and Sam yet, too._

"We won't worry about who is to become king. You may go Northman. But leave my kin, or you will have full out war between our kinds." Eric got back to his feet.

I saw what he was going to do mere seconds before he did it.

"No!" I lurched forward, but he already had Niall's sword. He swung it as hard as he could.

* * *

_Author's Note #2: I know these get read more often than the ones at the beginning, so here is the important note! My chapters will be a lot slower in coming. My hands are KILLING me! The baby will be here in less than 10 weeks (I'm so excited!) and it's having a detrimental effect on my hands. They feel bruised to the touch and my joints ache - not to mention the swelling is killing me! If you have some advice on relieving the pain please let me know - I don't have A/C (and it's in the freakin'90s - in OHIO!), and I know that's making it even worse._

_And I have another book recommendation if anyone is interested. The Rogue Angel Series by Alex Archer, there are 18 books in the series so far. He writes for Silhouette, though there isn't much in the way of romance. The main character, Annja Creed, is a twenty-something woman who was chosen to be the next bearer of Joan of Arc's legendary sword. She travels the globe for her telivision show, and as an archeologist, and getting into some kind of trouble every step of the way. She's led to fight evil in each story. It's a great series! A lot of action. It kind of reminds me of Tomb Raider. Once again, thanks for reading and please review!_


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